Jeremy Corbyn wrote a letter to get bail for a man accused of helping to fund ISIS
Jeremy Corbyn helped secure bail for one of his constituents after the man was accused of stealing money to raise funds for Islamic State fighters in Syria.
The Labour Party leader and MP for Islington North wrote a letter to magistrates in May in an attempt to aide 23-year-old Mohamed Dahir.
It is believed that Corbyn's office was unaware of the alleged links to the funding of Islamic State. MPs routinely write supportive letters for constituents seeking help, if they know the family.
Corbyn wrote to the court to say Dahir warranted bail as he had "roots" in the Islington area and was unlikely to abscond.
Magistrates granted Dahir bail and he was able to walk out of court pending the trial.
During that initial hearing the court was told that Dahir and several associates were helping to "fund and facilitate the travel" of British citizens to ISIS-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria with their "bank of terror," The Telegraph reports.
A spokesman for Corbyn told The Telegraph: "Jeremy Corbyn condemns the actions of his constituent as appalling acts against vulnerable people and wholly unacceptable."
"Jeremy was approached by his constituent prior to the trial, and wrote a letter on his behalf as is standard for a constituency MP," the spokesman added.
"This was before the full facts of the case had emerged, and was on the basis that Jeremy was informed the constituent needed to be at home with his children and would not abscond and could not travel abroad."
Dahir and eight others have now been convicted of posing as a police officer to steal more than £600,000 ($900,000) from elderly people.
Ultimately no terrorism charges were brought and they did not form part of Dahir's conviction.
The group was involved in an "industrial-scale" conspiracy to commit fraud. Scotland Yard confirmed that, while no terrorism charges were brought, the fraud was uncovered after "a separate terrorist investigation found suspicious payments into a bank account of an individual who is now believed to have travelled to Syria."
Following the gang's conviction, Richard Walton, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) said: "This callous group of criminals stole vast sums of money from extremely vulnerable and elderly people from across the country.
"Their despicable actions have had a terrible and devastating impact on their victims with some losing their life savings.
"The targeting of vulnerable men and women in their 80s and 90s is quite simply beyond belief.
"This was a scam on a huge national scale detected by specialist financial investigators who have stopped the targeting of even more victims.
"Our investigation remains on-going and we will continue to arrest and prosecute anyone involved in this fraud.
Nine people were convicted in total:
- Shakaria Aden, 21, and 23-year-old Yasser Abukar were found guilty with Dahir of conspiring to commit fraud.
- Mohammed Abokar, 28, was convicted of converting criminal property.
- Five other defendants had already pleaded guilty to involvement in the operation.
Ibrahim Farah, 23, was cleared of conspiring to commit fraud.