Luton man who sent nearly £16,500 in cryptocurrency to Islamic State group for 'martyrs' is jailed

A man has been jailed for more than three years for sending cryptocurrency to a so-called Islamic State group to support the families of “martyrs”.

Amin Rahman, 24, from Luton, had admitted funding the Afghanistan-based IS franchise ISKP – Islamic State Khorasan Province – with payments of more than £16,000 between last December and February.

The married father-of-one was jailed at the Old Bailey for three years and two months with a further year on extended licence.

Judge Nigel Lickley KC noted the defendant’s remorse but said his donations went towards “activities endangering life”, such as providing money to the families of “martyrs”.

The court heard how ISKP was declared by Isis in 2015 and had gone on to focus on orchestrating “sporadic high-impact attacks” in Europe, the United States and Central Asia.

Its propaganda arm had advocated the use of cryptocurrency to make donations.

Research in 2023 identified multiple pro-ISKP groups using digital currency, with one campaign alone controlling a wallet containing $2m worth in a year.

Prosecutor Rebecca Fairbairn said Rahman came to police notice through the potential criminal activities of an online user called Leads Plug, which was suspected of providing the details of accounts and bank cards to fraudsters.

The fraudsters would then go on to use the details to access accounts and obtain money or goods, she said.

Rahman, who had a computer science qualification, was arrested on 13 March and his electronic devices were seized during a search of his home in Bedfordshire.

He was found to have used the privacy-orientated cryptocurrency Monero app to make payments to ISKP totalling $20,789 (£16,563) between December 2023 and early February 2024, the court was told.

He told a user called Xilofat: “I want to donate in the pathway of Allah….And then we engage in the killing, by grace of Allah.”

He told another user called Thank You that he “yearns for martyrdom”.

He asked: “What preparations can I make physically for jihad? Anything I should practise in my spare time?”

The defendant made no comment on his arrest and had initially denied wrongdoing at a plea hearing on 12 July.

Days later, on 25 July, he admitted five terrorism offences – four of fundraising and one of entering into or becoming concerned in arrangements to make money or other property available to another.

At the sentencing hearing, Ms Fairbairn said the defendant had made “frank admissions” that he had “no idea” what the money he sent was going to fund.

But she added that he was “very keen his funding was to be used for those that had been martyred or their families”.

The defendant, who has no previous convictions, was said in testimonials to be “exceptionally bright”, “honest” and “trustworthy”, the court was told.

Mitigating, his barrister John Lyons said: “This is a man who has got real prospects of leading a productive life. He is capable and competent.

“There is no evidence of him being part of a radicalised group in the UK.”

A separate police investigation into alleged fraud is said to be ongoing.

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