‘Hitler You Were Right’ protester jailed for terrorism offences

A pro-Palestinian protester photographed holding a sign reading ‘Hitler You Were Right’ in 2014 has been jailed for terrorism offences.

Hussain Yousef, 22, became the face of hate in July 2014 as thousands protested Israel’s military action in Gaza, but was sent down for six and a half years at Kingston Crown Court last week for terror-related offences.

Police were alerted to extremist Islamic State material on Yousef’s Facebook accounts in November 2015. He was investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), before being arrested in July 2016.

Restaurant worker Yousef, who lives in Kilburn, was found to have used six social media profiles to post extremist Islamist propaganda and execution videos online.

“Yousef was sharing content, images and videos of the terrorist activities of Daesh [Islamic State] through his various Facebook accounts and trying to get others to support their evil and hateful ideology,” said Commander Dean Haydon from the Met’s CDC.

“This case was brought to our attention thanks to members of the public reporting it to us and I continue to urge anyone who sees terrorist or extremist material online to act and report it via the online reporting tool.”

Yousef came to the UK as an asylum seeker in 2010, the court was told, with teachers describing him as “charming and delightful… a pleasure to teach,” but after his asylum claim was refusing in 2014, he became radicalised.

Last week Yousef was convicted of three offences under the Terrorism Act 2006, including collecting information, encouraging terrorism and disseminating terrorist material, with Judge Paul Dogson ordering that he be deported after he has served his sentence.

A spokesman for the Community Security Trust (CST) said: “This is a textbook case study in how anti-Semitic attitudes may denote further extremist and terrorist inclinations.”