Two Jailed in Nigeria for Terrorism Charges Related to Iran

Two Nigerian members of an Iranian terrorist organization were sentenced to five years in prison each on Wednesday for recruiting would-be terrorists for the Iranian Regime, Iran Focus reports. Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and Saheed Adewumi were on trial for terrorism offences in the Middle East and Lagos between 2011 and 2012. They were arrested in 2012 after Berende made several suspicious trips to Iran where he interacted with a known high profile terrorist network.

Delivering judgement late evening on Wednesday, the court found the first defendant guilty of all the six-count charge. The second defendant was convicted on counts five and six of the charge. Consequently, the Court sentenced the First and Second defendants to 5 years’ imprisonment on each count of the charge they were found guilty. Justice Mohammed said the jail term would run concurrently. The court noted that the defendants had already spent five years in detention since 2012 when they were arrested by the Department of State Service, DSS.

In addition to the recruitment charges, Berende was found guilty of knowing about a terrorist act and concealing that from security operatives, collecting foreign currencies to aid and abate acts of terrorism, being involved in training on use of dangerous weapons and firearms with the intent of committing a terrorist act or acts in Nigeria, and conspiring to commit a terrorist act in Lagos in September 2011.

This is nothing new, of course. The Iranian Regime is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department, and has been involved with many terrorist groups from all sides.

They are heavily involved with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, who make up just a few of their proxies across the Middle East, have strong ties to the founders of ISIS and even sheltered the plotters of 9/11 from the American authorities.

The mullahs steal from their own people to fund their terrorist proxies and acts of destabilization across the Middle East, as highlighted by Donald Trump. The nuclear deal of 2015, which waived sanctions on Iran in exchange for limited nuclear restrictions, allowed Iran to gather even more money to use for terrorism.

U.S. President Trump kicked off the new year praising the people of Iran for “acting against” the regime while accusing former President Barack Obama of helping Tehran fund “terrorism.” The spending on terror and proxy wars is part of what demonstrators are protesting.

“The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their ‘pockets.’ The people have little food, big inflation, and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!” Trump recently said.

The Iranian Regime even has its own terrorist training camps within Iran, which were exposed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in 2017. The camps are run by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and feature two training regiments: Basic, a crash course for mercenaries who are headed for Syria, and Intense, for those who are headed for the more brutal arm of the IRGC, the Quds Force.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, the Deputy Director of the US Representative Office of the NCRI, noted in the press conference that he expected Democrats and Republicans alike to get behind listing the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation. Jafarzadeh told journalists that the Iranian Regime (and its own terror squad, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)) was training hundreds of terrorists from across the middle-east every month.

This horrifying information was unearthed by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and their covert operatives within Iran. It further confirms the statement by Defence Secretary James Mattis at the start of the month, that Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism.

The Regime lets their Quds force run the terror training camps in order to distance themselves from the Quds’ terrorism but Jafarzadeh warns that there is no distance between the Regime, the IRGC and the Quds force. In fact, in November 2016, Brigadier General Orouj, confirmed the Regime’s knowledge of the camps in an interview.

“I was in charge of training for the Quds Force, and later took charge of training of the Quds Special Forces, working with them round-the-clock, going back and forth to Lebanon. … When Khamenei visited the Quds Force, the only unit that he applauded was that same training unit,” he said.

The press conference also revealed the locations of the terror camps, eight of which are in Tehran. The others are in Mashhad, Gheshm, Amel, Semnan, Ahvaz, and Abadan. These are only the ones that the NCRI has received substantial intelligence on and there are more suspected locations across Iran. Terror trainees are sorted by their nationality and the terror training course they are taking, but all terrorists must first complete a one-week body building course.

Following training, terrorists from countries when Iran is fighting (either openly or secretly), will be sent to the front lines. At present, this includes Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon. In countries where Iran is not involved in heavy warfare (like Bahrain and Kuwait), the terrorists will form cells designed to destabilise the government there.