Rapper allegedly planned terror attack after watching IS instruction video

Al-Arfat Hassan used his music to “glorify IS terrorist killings” and gained a strong online following of young Muslims under the name TS, a court has heard.

Hassan, 20, from Enfield, north London, is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court alongside one of his fans, a 16-year-old from Leeds.

Both are accused of preparing terrorist acts.

Hassan is also charged with possessing an explosive substance under suspicious circumstances, while the 16-year-old is accused of possessing a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

Sheffield Crown Court jurors heard that the pair, who started talking online when the younger defendant became “drawn” to Hassan through his music, had “become heavily radicalised” by late 2021 and both “supported an extreme Islamist ideology”.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said this included a desire to implement Sharia Law, a hatred of disbelievers, a willingness to engage in violent jihad, a desire for martyrdom and an interest in extremist groups, particularly IS.

The defendants researched and planned to buy knives, balaclavas and materials to make bombs as part of their plans to commit terrorist attacks, the court heard.

He told jurors that both took inspiration from a video called You Must Fight Them O Muwahid, which was published by the media wing of IS.

The “slick and professional” propaganda video encouraged Muslims in the West to launch terrorist attacks in their own countries, jurors were told.

It featured the murder of a prisoner during a “gruesome demonstration” on knife attacks, and instructions on how to manufacture an improvised explosive device.

Mr Sandiford said this section showed another prisoner being forced to run until he was “blown up” by an explosive device in a rucksack.

Between January and February 2022, Hassan bought acetone and hydrogen peroxide – two of the materials needed to make the high explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) – with what prosecutors say was the intention of making an explosive device to use in a terror attack.

Mr Sandiford said there was evidence that the defendants discussed a suicide bomb attack in calls.

Jurors were told Hassan went from being a “cheeky and likeable” teenager to being more religious around April 2021, with teachers at Kingsmead School recording him saying he would no longer mix with females because his beliefs did not allow it.

He was also said to have discussed wanting to go to Syria to “fight” and asking another pupil to go with him.

The court heard Hassan told a young woman he was in a relationship with that he was “an extremist who was planning one or more terrorist attacks, including a bomb attack”.

In one set of his lyrics, referred to as The London Verse, Hassan referred to IS victims including James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Alan Henning being “put in a box”, as well as the editor of the Charlie Hebdo magazine and murdered soldier Lee Rigby.

In the same rap, Hassan “identified London as a target for a bomb attack”, Mr Sandiford said.

The court heard that in November 2021, Hassan told his girlfriend that central London would be the target for an attack by him, later sending her a crude drawing of the area and saying he would cause carnage.

In January 2022, jurors heard that the young woman told Hassan to go and spend time with his “cupcakes”, which Mr Sandiford said was used as a codeword for “bombs” by the defendants.

Meanwhile, the 16-year-old started telling his mother about his support for the enforcement of Sharia Law and his view that IS enforced it in the “right way” in May 2021, the court was told.

Mr Sandiford said both defendants expressed a desire for martyrdom on numerous occasions, with the younger defendant telling his mother at the age of 14 that “rage was building up inside him, that he had had enough of this worldly life and he was heading straight for martyrdom, he just wanted to leave the world and meet Allah, though as a mujahid (soldier) rather than a suicide bomber”.

The prosecutor also told jurors: “Time and again the defendants chose to create images or videos of themselves dressed, sometimes armed and with imagery associated with violent jihad.”

Having met through Hassan’s music, the pair developed a close bond in the months leading up to their arrests, despite the teenager’s mother warning her son to stay away from Hassan, jurors heard.

Both defendants deny the charges and the trial continues.