Ben Holt was instructed to prosecute Mohammed Bashir.
On June 6 2026, Mohammed Bashir pleaded guilty to an offence contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006; preparation of terrorist acts.
Bashir was a close associate of Jihad Al Shamie. On 2 October 2025, Al Shamie carried out a terrorist attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester; killing two members of the Jewish community. Al Shamie was shot dead by Police.
In August 2025, Bashir and Al Shamie were planning to carry out a similar attack on the MoD base at Shrivenham. They were caught on CCTV cameras inside the Al Sunnah mosque in Manchester mosque in Manchester, where they regularly attended to pray, planning the attack. Bashir was heard to say, ’this time next year we will be in green birds’. In Islamic literature, this is intimately linked to martyrdom. They discussed and made internet searches about getting weapons, hire cars, ‘burner’ telephones and dummy vests in order to carry out the attack.
On 14 August 2025, Bashir drove Al Shamie to the MoD station. Whilst there, Al Shamie carried out reconnaissance of the location; making notes on his iPhone about the target and how those inside could be overcome.
Mobile telephone evidence showed that Bashir was a long-standing and committed jihadist. He shared extremist literature among participants of a WhatsApp group called ‘Aspiring to the Ranks of the Elite’. He spoke with Al Shamie and others about his hope that Sharia would be established in Syria. He praised Palestinian fighters and posted messages about restoring glory to Muslim lands by exterminating Jewish men and taking Jewish women as concubines.
Bashir was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of seventeen years by Chema Grubb J sitting at the Manchester Crown Court on 23 July following a two-day sentence hearing. Having heard evidence, the Court was satisfied that , as part of the attack on the MoD base, Bashir intended that he and Al-Shamie would both be martyred and that they intended to kill others. The Judge described it as a ‘viable plan’ to ‘cause as much bloodshed as possible’.
The case was investigated by Counter Terrorism Police North West.
Ben was instructed by the CPS CT Unit and led by Jonathan Polnay KC of QEB.
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