Cardiff man jailed in Spain for terror offences

A web designer from Cardiff has been jailed for seven years in Spain for financing and supporting terrorism.

Spain’s national court in Madrid heard Ataul Haque and his brother Siful Sujan transferred funds and hi-tech equipment to the so called Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria.

Haque fled to Spain in 2015 after Sujan was killed in a drone strike in Syria.

Haque was found guilty of financing and supporting terrorism but cleared of being a member of a terrorist group.

The 37-year-old was sentenced on 10 May after a three-day trial at the Audiencia Nacional on 27 April.

Haque, who was originally from Bangladesh, was arrested in 2017 after his home in Merida, in western Spain, was raided by police.

Police found evidence of large money transfers, Salafist and jihadi propaganda, and spreadsheets on drone technology during the raid.

Haque was listed as a director of the now dissolved Cardiff-based company Ibacstel.

In August 2017, an FBI investigation in the United States alleged Sujan used Ibacstel as a front to finance terrorism and supply IS with military-grade scanners and surveillance equipment.

Siful Sujan, was a computer hacker for IS and was regarded by the group as an IT mastermind. He was killed in a US-led coalition air strike near the Syrian city of Raqqah in 2015.