Mohamad Al Bared began constructing the drone in July 2022. PA
Mohamad Al Bared began constructing the drone in July 2022. PA
Mohamad Al Bared began constructing the drone in July 2022. PA
Mohamad Al Bared began constructing the drone in July 2022. PA

World

UK

ISIS terrorist who built chemical weapon drone jailed for life

Student Mohamad Al Bared created the weapon using a 3D printer

Nicky Harley
Nicky Harley
London

December 22, 2023

  • English
  • Arabic

An engineering student who designed and built a “kamikaze” drone for ISIS has been jailed for life.

Mohamad Al Bared, from Coventry in the UK, used a 3D printer to create the weapon after chatting to the terror group online.

Doctoral student Al Bared, who studied at the University of Birmingham and specialised in laser drilling, began constructing the drone in July 2022.

Birmingham Crown Court heard notes were found in which Al Bared said the idea for the drone was “somewhat inspired by the design of the Tomahawk missile”.

The court heard he had intended to make a video-transmitting fixed-wing drone for terrorist purposes and to travel to West Africa via Turkey.

Al Bared, 27, had joined ISIS and then set up a UK-registered company, purportedly to import Turkish food, to help plans for future foreign travel.

In September, he was found guilty by a jury that heard he had put together a prototype drone, which he hoped would be capable of delivering a bomb or chemical weapon.

He was convicted of a single count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts to benefit a proscribed terrorist organisation.

On Friday, Judge Paul Farrer KC said Al Bared, who previously studied at Coventry University and the University of Warwick, had decided to lend his support to the “terrorist agenda” of ISIS.

“I have no doubt that you intended your design to be used as a single-use weapon with a range of up to 5 kilometres,” he said.

“Your preparations were undertaken with a view to endangering multiple lives.”

Observing that the design of the drone was “at best suspect and at worse fundamentally flawed”. The judge added: “This was a work in progress.

“You are a manipulative individual. You are a committed extremist. I have no doubt that you are still today a supporter of ISIS.

“It is impossible to say whether you will ever surrender your extremist views. You are a dangerous offender from whom the public requires protection.

“The seriousness of the offending justifies a sentence of life imprisonment.”

The drone and a mobile phone were seized when Al Bared was arrested in January this year, leading to the discovery of encrypted online chats and other digital material exposing his support for ISIS.

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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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Forwards: Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Tammy Abraham, Callum Hudson-Odoi.

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What are NFTs?

Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.

You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”

However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad. 

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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)

Updated: December 22, 2023, 7:00 PM
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