Another one bites the dust, or at least gets locked away for the best part of two decades. On a grey July day in Manchester Crown Court, Mohammad Asim Bashir learned that scouting British military sites with a future terrorist carries a rather steep price tag.
The 31-year-old from Cheetham Hill pleaded guilty back in June to preparing acts of terrorism. By the time sentencing rolled around this week, the details had the unmistakable whiff of grim inevitability. Bashir had gone on a little reconnaissance jaunt to the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham with one Jihad Al-Shamie. Same pair, same car, same dark purpose. Weeks later Al-Shamie drove through the gates of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, jumped out with a knife, and murdered Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby before police ended his rampage.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, showing the sort of judicial steel that used to be taken for granted, gave Bashir life with a minimum of 16 years and 135 days. She called him a firmly committed jihadist. The phrase lands like a judge slamming a particularly heavy file shut.
The court heard how the pair swapped extremist videos glorifying martyrs, chatted about obstacles on the path of jihad, and pored over notes on weapons and potential targets. Antisemitic remarks peppered the chat. Al-Shamie had been hunting people linked to the Israeli military. Bashir's later claim that he had somehow seen the error of his ways received the judicial equivalent of a raised eyebrow and a brisk dismissal.
I consider you remain dangerous. You have given no grounds that your attitude has really changed at all.
That was Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb again, cutting through the usual theatre of rehabilitation with refreshing directness. No misty-eyed lectures about root causes or foreign policy grievances. Just the plain recognition that some people remain a menace.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts of Counter Terrorism Policing put it plainly too. Their enquiries had uncovered Bashir's offending even though he was not directly tied to the synagogue slaughter itself. The joint hostile reconnaissance, however, told its own story about seriousness and intent.
