UK jailed Muslim woman for posting thousands of terror messages online

A UK court on Friday sent a woman to jail for urging people to engage in terrorism.

Alaa Abdullah Esayed, 22, was sentenced to three and a half years by the Central Criminal Court following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, read a statement issued by Metropolitan Police.

The 22-year-old had used her Twitter and Instagram accounts to post thousands of messages, images and links to videos and terrorist-related material online.

Esayed used to send nearly 60 messages a day - almost exclusively encouraging terrorism. Before her Twitter account was suspended in May 2014, she had tweeted over 45,000 messages. She also used to tweet links of documents and videos related to terrorist material online, including speeches and propaganda material posted by terrorist organisations.

She was arrested from her address in south London on June 3, 2014. Almost after six months of her arrest, Esayed was charged on November 27. She pleaded guilty to charges of encouragement of terrorism and dissemination of terrorist publications on April 8, 2015.

Commander Richard Walton, who leads the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said, "Terrorism will not be defeated until we silence those who inspire others to commit terrorist acts."

"We will prosecute anyone using the internet and social media in this way."