ISIS fighter was allowed tofly in and out of UK

A BRITISH jihadi who fought for Islamic State in Syria was allowed to fly in and out of the UK despite being stopped by anti-terror police, a court heard.

The 35-year-old – who once led a poppy-burning stunt – spent up to four months on the battlefield, according to security services.

Despite that, he was able to travel freely through Europe and the Middle East. Only now has the Bangladeshi-born extremist – who cannot be named for legal reasons – lost a legal battle to keep hold of his UK passport, but he remains in the country.

Last night experts said the case highlighted the risks posed by some 400 battle-hardened jihadis who have returned to the UK from Syria and Iraq. Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism expert at the thinktank RUSI, said such individuals should be put in jail or made subject to new Terrorism Prevention Investigation Measures.

The man admits he was involved with jailed extremist Anjem Choudary’s banned Al Muhajiroun group which burned poppies and chanted ‘British soldiers go to hell’ during an Armistice Day protest in 2010.

He now claims to regret his links to the Islamist organisation and after leaving it in 2011 he worked in the NHS and then tried to set up a confectionery firm.

But in February 2014 he travelled to Turkey, supposedly for business, and was arrested for overstaying his 90-day visa in June that year.

According to a summary of the Home Office’s case against him, during that time he had ‘travelled to Syria to engage in terrorism-related activity’. The suspect later went to Sweden, then travelled to Egypt where he claims he married a British woman who became his second wife. He then travelled with her to Greece and from there to Bulgaria. He was deported from Bulgaria ‘on national security grounds’ in November 2014 and on his return to the UK was interviewed under counter-terror powers.

A few months later, he flew to the Czech Republic and was again questioned upon his return. MI5 at first thought this was a ‘to conduct reconnaissance of border security’.

Shortly afterwards, in March 2015, he travelled to Poland, but on his return he found his passport had been cancelled by the Home Office because he had been involved in ‘terrorism-related activity’.

The suspect sought a judicial review of the decision at the High Court which was told he may have associated with other British jihadis including masked murderer Siddhartha Dhar, dubbed ‘Jihadi Sid’.

On Friday, judges Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Supperstone rejected claims by the man’s lawyers that cancelling his passport was done on flawed grounds.