 A MUSLIM who plotted to hunt down and kill a soldier who was awarded the Military Cross for bravery under fire in Iraq was jailed for six years yesterday. Abu Mansha, 21, drew up his plan after reading a newspaper report that Corporal Mark Byles, of The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, had been awarded one of the Army's highest honours after leading a bayonet charge in which three Iraqi rebels died. In the article, Corporal Byles stated that he had killed as many as twenty insurgents during his six-month tour of duty.
When police searched Abu Mansha's flat in Thamesmead, southeast London, they found a blank-firing gun in the process of being converted to shoot live rounds, a balaclava with eye-holes cut out and a newspaper cutting detailing the soldier's exploits. DVDs featuring "virulent anti-Western propaganda" were also recovered, Southwark Crown Court was told. Some featured Osama bin Laden and another depicted the beheading of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley. A poem that the defendant had written describing George Bush and Tony Blair as "dirty pigs" was also found.
Abu Mansha, the British-born son of a Pakistani-born travel agent, had also researched the personal details of two businessmen, one a Hindu and the other a Jew. The market stallholder was convicted last month under the Terrorism Act of possessing information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". He remained impassive as Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: "The information found in his possession included Corporal Byles's past address. That information was in your handwriting, as was a request by you -- and I underline that -- for information about prominent members of the Jewish and Hindu communities. The jury rejected your claims that these were just journalistic inquiries. The maximum sentence for this offence is ten years' imprisonment. You have never faced a charge for conspiracy to kill or cause harm and I do not sentence you for that, but when that information came into your possession and was recorded by you, you crossed the boundary into terrorism." Abu Mansha has a previous conviction for affray as the result of a racial confrontation with another market stallholder three years ago.
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Corporal Byles, 35, was disciplined by the Army for giving a detailed account of his Iraq exploits in interviews with newspapers. He spoke from behind screens as he gave the two-week trial a graphic account of the bloody confrontation in the volatile area of al-Amarah on May 14, 2004. The soldier of 13 years recalled: "I had two choices: stay there and be cut to pieces . . . or put down concentrated fire and attack the positions, which is what I did." He was awarded the Military Cross for "immense professionalism under fire" and bravery in leading an assault on an enemy position. A statement on the effect that the case had had on the soldier was submitted to the court. It was not read out, but the judge accepted that it made "unhappy reading".
Abu Mansha was arrested last March after an operation by anti-terrorist and firearms officers. He told the court that he was neither a strict Muslim nor had any strong political views, and denied having anything to do with terrorism. He said that most of the items found in his flat were connected with research that he was helping a journalist friend to carry out, while the pistol had been bought from a market stall as a souvenir. Jeremy Carter-Manning, QC, for the defence, said that Abu Mansha was "at the very highest an utter incompetent". He said: "You are not sentencing a man of academic high-flying ability." The likelihood of reoffending was described in the pre-sentence report as low. 
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