A 26-year-old taxi driver believed to be of Pakistani-origin, who planned to leave his pregnant wife in the UK to join the Islamic State in Syria and marry a 'jihadi bride', was found today guilty of terrorism charges by a British court here.
Naseer Mirza Taj, from Bedford in the east of England, was a sympathiser of extremists and had plotted to travel to Syria and marry a jihadi bride, his trial at the Old Bailey court in London was told.
The jury found him guilty of preparation of terrorist acts and two counts of possessing terrorist information.
He will be sentenced at a later hearing in April.
Taj, believed to be of Pakistani-origin,was to travel to Syria via Turkey on December 31, 2014 but was arrested two days before he could leave.
While on bail, he was again arrested by Bedfordshire Police in May 2015 after trying to obtain fraudulent travel documents in a bid to flee the country after his passport had been seized following his initial arrest.
Detectives from the UK's Eastern Counter Terrorism Intelligence Unit linked Taj to a Twitter account in the name of Abu Bakr Al Kashmiri, which had the background profile picture of British Muslim terrorist 'Jihadi John' and a main profile picture of Al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri.
Several copies of a banned publication were also found in his flat along with a downloaded document "44 ways to support Jihad" and a publication titled 'The Book of JIHAD'.
Prosecutor Mark Weekes had told jurors of "compelling evidence" of his sympathies with extremist Islamists and said, if unchecked, he would have gone to fight.
Taj had denied the charges and told jurors: "I'm not a reader, I like to read but I don't read because I can't be bothered."
His defence team had claimed that Taj had planned to live peacefully in Syria with his new wife, but changed his mind about travelling shortly before his arrest.
