Hackney Council worker pleads guilty to terrorist charges
Khalid Baqa planned to flood the UK with terrorist material - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
A council worker who planned to flood the UK with terrorist propaganda is facing jail.
Hackney Council revenue officer Khalid Baqa, 48, produced 300 copies of CD-ROMs stuffed with extremist manuals, the Old Bailey heard this week.
Suspect items were recovered from his car and a rucksack in his daughter’s bedroom, while he had even stashed some of the material on his work computer.
Among the documents on the discs was 39 Ways to Support and Participate in Jihad.
There were also copies of four issues of the English-language al- Qaeda magazine, Inspire.
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Articles in the publication include instructions on how to operate an AK47 machine gun.
Baqa, a father-of-five, had initially denied terror charges and was due to stand trial. But at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to two counts of disseminating terrorist publications.
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The admissions came after Judge Christopher Moss QC told him he would spend no longer than 28 months behind bars. Seven additional charges of collecting material useful to a terrorist were left to lie on the court file.
During an earlier hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, prosecutor Jane Evans said: “The discs were clearly intended to be disseminated.”
She said that the data on CDs was well structured and set out in chapters and folders, and told the court that there was a message at the beginning of a video saying: “Dear viewers”.
“It goes on to explain what programme you need to access to view the material, a clear indication that it was intended for dissemination,” she added.
Baqa, of Priory Road, Barking, Essex, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on April 26.
