UK court imprisons mother, daughter for funding ISIS in Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A British court jailed a mother and daughter from London for sending money to a relative who had joined the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria.
The court found both Stella Oyella, 53, and Vanessa Atim, 32, from Newham, east London, guilty of funding terrorism and sending hundreds of pounds to Joseph Ogaba between March and October 2017.
Judge Mark Dennis, sitting at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey, sentenced Atim to three years and nine months of imprisonment and Oyella to three years.
Ogaba, 30, a computer programmer who converted to Islam, was Oyella’s brother. He left the UK in September 2014 to join ISIS in Syria.
Eventually, Ogaba was detained and held in a detention camp until his death around July 2022, the jurors were told.
The court found no evidence the money was used for weapons or that the Atim and Oyella wanted to support terrorism.
The judge said Ogaba manipulated his close bond with the women, who had no extremist ideological motives but only wanted to help him.
“However, taken that your motivation was not ideological or a desire to engage in such activities, you knew what you were doing was wrong and could get you into trouble,” the judge said.