A businessman on trial for an alleged terror offence worked for MI5 and recorded an intelligence officer offering him £30,000 to spy for the British government, a court was told last week.
Pervez Rafiq is accused of taking part in a plot to smuggle money to jihadists in Syria using charity aid convoys. He denies arranging funds or property for the purposes of terrorism.
His lawyer, Hossein Zahir, told the Old Bailey in London that Rafiq, 46, from Birkby, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, recorded a conversation with an MI5 officer called “Ben” after he was found guilty of a minor fraud in July 2013.
Zahir told the jury: “MI5 jumped on this [the conviction]. Work with us and we will pay you . . . Ben is offering him £30,000. Why would MI5 offer a man who is funding terrorism £30,000?”
He said a transcript of the conversation also showed Ben advising Rafiq to get his lawyer to raise his previous co-operation with the authorities before he was sentenced. “What Ben is doing is telling Mr Rafiq to rely on his good works and his charity work in order to get mitigation in front of a crown court judge,” he told the jury.
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“If Ben or MI5 think he is a terrorist, what are they doing telling him to lie to a crown court judge? MI5 is governed by our domestic law. It is not legal to tell him to lie to a crown court judge like this.
“What does this tell you about their view of him? This tells you that Mr Rafiq thinks his activities are sanctioned.”
Zahir told the jury that the transcript and texts showed a “pre-existing relationship” between MI5 and Rafiq. The prosecution had not challenged Rafiq’s evidence regarding his contact with MI5 and the jury should be “left in no doubt that it is true”, he said. The transcript and texts were presented to the jury.
Rafiq is on trial with three other men — Syed Hoque, 37, of Stoke-on-Trent, Mashoud Miah, 27, and Mohammed Hussain, 30, both of east London. All deny the charges.
The prosecution claims that they used aid convoys to transport items that would be used to commit terrorism offences. Hoque is alleged to have handed over a total of £4,500 to help his nephew, who was fighting for Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda.
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Rafiq and Hussain are accused of obtaining equipment and helping to get it to the war-torn country.
The prosecution claims the four men were plotting to set up a team of terrorist snipers in Syria.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC told the jury: “The defendants made use, or so it would appear, of aid convoys as a means of moving money and other property out of the UK to Syria.”
But Zahir said Rafiq had often been stopped and questioned by antiterrorism detectives about the aid deliveries and that he had been open with them.
“He tells them about his activities . . . and answers their questions truthfully,” he said. “He says he is opposed to extremism. He has one phone, registered in his own name for the last 10 years. Hardly James Bond.”
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The lawyer said his client was a “truly heroic humanitarian aid worker” who had developed a “hatred” for extremism after his friend Alan Henning was kidnapped from one of Rafiq’s aid convoys by Isis and beheaded.