Terror accused ‘wrote to mass murderer Breivik’
Court told mosque attack plot suspect called gun killer ‘saviour of Europe’
A MAN accused of planning to live-stream a terrorist act claimed he’d written to Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik.
Sam Imrie is accused of preparing to commit acts of terrorism and suggesting online that he planned to attack the Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes.
The 24-year-old’s trial at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday was shown a series of online posts made by Imrie before his arrest.
He called convicted terrorist Breivik – who killed 77 people in 2011 in a bomb attack and mass shooting in Norway – “the saviour of Europe”.
One post by Imrie said: “All my heroes are mass murderers. Kill the invaders today.”
He also referred to Brenton Tarrant, the terrorist who carried out the 2019 Christchurch mosques mass shootings in New Zealand, as “Saint Tarrant”.
The jury heard how the Metropolitan Police made copies of posts from a channel called @ Fashwaveartists on the Telegram instant messaging service in June and July 2019.
Giving evidence, Detective Constable Jonathan Leitch, who works in counter-terrorism for Police Scotland, said the word “fash” was “potentially” a reference to fascism.
The officer said the channel’s 279 members posted about “hatred of individual groups” in society.
Advocate depute Lisa Gillespie QC said it was an agreed fact that Imrie posted on this channel.
In one post shown to the jury, Imrie called Breivik “the saviour of Europe” and added he “holds the world record for greatest mass shooting ever”. Imrie wrote: “I hope to meet him one day.”
In a conversation with another channel member, he posted about Breivik: “I wrote him a letter recently, just like Saint Tarrant did.” Asked by a user if Breivik could receive correspondence, Imrie claimed “they read all his mail” but he received “15 per cent” of his letters.
Again referring to Breivik, Imrie wrote: “My Jew Tube channel got shut down for posting his video manifesto this week.”
A channel user asked Imrie about life in Scotland and he replied: “97 per cent white so no complaints really. I’ve literally never met a black person.”
Earlier DC Leitch, who reviewed the channel contents saved by the Met, said Imrie posted a photo he believed to be of Tarrant. The court was shown a post by Imrie which said: “Take the fight to invaders, Saint Tarrant.”
A further image posted by Imrie on the channel was of Breivik giving a Nazi salute with the message, “Traitors get the f***ing bullet” on it. Under it was written: “I love him so much.”
The jury was shown other posts by Imrie which said, “All my heroes are mass murderers. Kill the invaders today”; “The fire rises. Wake up white man”; and “Europe belongs
I hope to meet him one day... I love him so much SAM IMRIE ON ANDERS BREIVIK, ABOVE
to Europeans”.
Imrie, who denies all nine charges against him, is accused of publishing or causing another person to publish statements, images and video footage on Facebook and internet platform Telegram glorifying terrorist acts committed by Tarrant and Breivik.
He is accused of posting statements on Telegram indicating he planned to stream live footage of “an incident” and posting statements suggesting he was going to carry out an attack on the Fife Islamic Centre.
Prosecutors allege Imrie collected information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism between June 20 and July 4, 2019.
The trial continues.