Prison for Irishman snared in Isis news sting op

AN Irishman who told Isis to ‘give me some toys and I will go straight to the Daily Mail’ has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years for funding terrorism.

Hassan Bal, 26, had sent threats against London’s Daily Mail to an Isis operative after a newspaper sting operation exposed the terror organisation’s fundraising operation in the United Kingdom.

Bal also arranged for funds to be passed to Isis or ‘Daesh’ while living at O’Connell Street, Waterford.

In the first prosecution of its kind here, Bal admitted unlawfully transferring €400 for use by Isis and to attempting to collect money for the group.

His activities were detected following a sting by the London-based Mail on Sunday and an investigation by a number of police forces, Waterford Circuit Court heard.

Bal’s sentence has been backdated to when he was first incarcerated late year and he could now be freed with remission by early next year.

Judge Eugene O’Kelly found the accused had the confidence of ‘significant members’ of Isis and had proven his credentials to them by attempting to travel to Syria to join them. He sentenced Hassan Bal to four-and-a-half-years in prison, with two years suspended, for attempting to collect funds for Isis and three years, one suspended, for sending funds to the terrorist group.

The suspensions were on condition that he remains ‘totally disassociated’ with any group promoting ‘a radical view of Islam’.

In a letter to the court, Bal said: ‘I don’t know how to put into words how deeply sorry I am for what I have done, and how remorseful’.

After his arrest he said he ‘came to my senses. My eyes started to open and I saw what I was doing was wrong and that my actions didn’t aid the Syrian people’. He appealed to the judge: ‘My life is in your hands.’

He wanted to become a ‘positive’ influence, against the use of violence, his lawyer said.

Judge O’Kelly said: ‘It is in the public interest that Hassan Bal is rehabilitated into society on his release. He will face many challenges re-asserting himself into daily life, but the hope is that he will be able to participate fully in society.’

Both the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday are ultimately owned by DMGT, the owner of the Irish Daily Mail and Irish Mail on Sunday.

Admitted sending money for use by terror group