A man who shared extremist material online before travelling abroad to join terrorist group Daesh in Syria has been jailed.
Stefan Aristidou, of no fixed address, was sentenced last Friday (1 October) to 28 months imprisonment at the Old Bailey after admitting to four counts of dissemination of terrorist material (contrary to section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006) at a previous hearing.
Aristidou’s family feared he had travelled to Syria and reported him missing in April 2015. In their efforts to locate him, detectives looked on his computer, where they found evidence that he had shared violent extremist material with another person.
His conversations indicated that he had left the UK to join Daesh in Syria. He was arrested by police in Turkey in April 2017, and later convicted and jailed for being a member of a terrorist organisation by the Turkish authorities.
A British national, Aristidou was deported back to the UK in February 2020 following his release from prison in Turkey. When he arrived at Heathrow Airport, he was arrested by police in relation to the terrorist material he shared.
Commander Richard Smith, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “This case is a reminder that if you commit terrorism offences in the UK, police will seek to prosecute you – no matter how much time has elapsed.
“Extremist propaganda of the kind Aristidou shared shows graphic acts of terrorist violence, and promotes a hateful, toxic ideology. Aristidou will now spend more time in jail for this offending.”
