Sheffield Dentistry student found in possession of ‘training’ video aligned with ‘ISIS and al-Qaeda’ teaching viewers how to stab and behead

A University of Sheffield Dentistry student on trial for terror-related charges has been found in possession of a 'training' video teaching viewers how to gorrote, behead and stab victims.

The video, titled 'Commander Hamzah Zinjibary's Training Camp 'was shown to members of the jury as part of the ongoing trial of 24-year-old Mohammed Abbas Awan.

The 36-minute-long video was found on a thumbdrive seized from Awan. Detective Sergeant, Adam Walker, of the North East Counter Terrorism Unit (NECTU), told the court that the video appeared to be aligned with Islamic State and al-Qaeda and that the Islamic State flag could be seen held up towards the end.

DS Walker added: "It provides training style demonstrations on how to use a knife to kill someone.

"It demonstrates beheading and garrotting. I would say it's definitely [aligned with] Islamic State and potentially al-Qaeda as well."

The video shows lines of men dressed in black balaclavas and white robes with a black belt practicing a range of training moves. The men are also shown driving a Range Rover over a section of desert, before getting out of the vehicle and attacking a target with knives.

Awan was also found in possession of a book called 'How To Survive In The West' which details how to construct a makeshift bomb, how to use ball-bearings as shrapnel and how to live a 'double life' and avoid drawing attention to oneself.

Awan's Sheffield residence in Dun Street, Kelham Island, was raided by Police on June 1, just after Awan purchased 500 ball bearings off the internet on May 29. The ball bearings were delivered to Awan's family home in Huddersfield.

Counter-terrorism officers seized 11 mobile phones, 16 memory sticks and around 60 SIM cards, containing a range of terror-related material.

When questioned about his purchase of the ball bearings, Awan told police it was unrelated from terrorism and claims to be a keen angler and hunter who was planning to use them to hunt rabbits with a catapult.

The court heard that Awan's brother, Rizwan and his partner Sophie, had traveled from Manchester to Istanbul, Turkey on May 17, 2015, and appear to have joined Isis.

Awan and his brother were in contact until August 2015, before reports of Rizwan Awan killing himself in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq in March 2016.
Awan denies three terror-related charges, including two counts of possession of a document or record containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. The third charge is a single count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts or assisting others to commit such acts.