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A man who planned a terror attack with his friend who went on a fatal knife rampage at a Manchester synagogue less than two months later has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 17 years.
Mohammad Bashir, 31, drove Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, on a 10-hour round trip to conduct hostile reconnaissance at the UK’s Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Swindon, on August 14 last year, Manchester Crown Court heard.
On October 2, two men were killed in a separate incident as worshippers gathered at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue to mark Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews.
Syrian-born UK citizen Al-Shamie, who wore a fake suicide belt, was shot dead by police outside the building.
Last month Bashir, of Cheetham Hill, Manchester, pleaded guilty to the preparation of terrorist acts.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence to suggest the defendant had any involvement in the Heaton Park incident but the planned attack on the defence facility was similar in nature and would have caused multiple fatalities.
MoD Shrivenham is the home of the UK’s Defence Academy, the court heard, which provides professional defence and security education to the British armed forces, wider UK government, UK industry and overseas personnel.
Routinely, there will be up to 4,000 staff, contractors, students and visitors on site at any given time.
Sentencing Bashir on Thursday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him that by August last year he had become a “firmly committed jihadist” and together with Al-Shamie was “equally engaged and enthusiastic” in planning an attack on a British military target “in which you and he expected to kill and be killed”.
She said: “This was a viable plan to attack the Defence Academy in a broadly similar way to that in which Al-Shamie attacked the synagogue – using handheld weapons and a dummy suicide vest to cause as much bloodshed as possible.
“I am sure you were going to play an active part.
“It was far advanced, lacking only the acquisition of weapons but it did not go further.”
The day after the reconnaissance visit, Al-Shamie made an online search for a “fancy dress suicide vest”, the court heard.
Bashir joined an Islamic extremist chat group, set up by Al-Shamie in 2024, which had 12 members.
The judge said: “You sent over 2,000 messages to that chat group in six months.
“Many were about physical violence in the cause of jihad including calls for persecution and murder.
“You told the group that the best Muslims are either in prison, on the front line or in the grave.
“You exalted martyrdom.
“You praised Palestinian fighters and you posted messages about restoring glory to Muslim lands by exterminating Jewish men and taking Jewish women as concubines.”
Bashir disposed of his phone following the Defence Academy visit and did not contact the police about his contact with Al-Shamie before or after the synagogue attack.
He erased content from another phone before he returned from a family wedding in Pakistan to the UK in November when he was arrested at Manchester Airport.
The judge rejected his claim to a probation officer that he no longer held extremist views and regretted his actions.
She said: “I consider you remain dangerous. You have given no grounds that your attitude has really changed at all.”
Following sentencing, Manchester-born Bashir, who also holds a Pakistani passport, smiled to family members in the upper public gallery of the courtroom as he casually walked from the dock.
Following the synagogue attack, WhatsApp messages and voice note exchanges between the pair were uncovered when police analysed two phones seized from Al-Shamie earlier in 2025.
The devices were confiscated from him when he was arrested in February over an alleged breach of a non-molestation order and in September on suspicion of rape.
Sir Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, issued an apology over the “missed opportunity” to gather intelligence on Al-Shamie before he launched his attack.
The court heard that police also obtained a warrant to examine Al-Shamie’s online iCloud and iPhone storage data, while CCTV footage of the two men at the Al-Sunnah Mosque in Cheetham Hill also formed a key part of the prosecution case.
Both wrongly thought they had hidden from cameras and their conversations would not be heard as they discussed their plans and made searches online including concerning IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers training in the UK.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts, of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said the mosque had “fully co-operated” with its investigation.
He said: “The way that Al-Shamie and Bashir behaved in the mosque was very secretive and was not done in groups of people.
“They were going to corners of the mosque and were at pains to keep things confidential.”
The inquests into the deaths of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby in the synagogue attack are set to take place in spring 2027.
Mr Cravitz, 66, died from multiple knife wounds inflicted by Al-Shamie, while Mr Daulby, 53, was struck by a single gunshot wound to the chest fired by an armed police officer scrambled to the scene in Crumpsall.
The proposed scope of the inquests will include examining the radicalisation of Al-Shamie and whether the attack could have been prevented.
