Synagogue attacker's friend 'a committed jihadist'

A friend of the Manchester synagogue attacker, who drove him to survey a military base, is himself a "long-standing, committed jihadist", a court has heard.

Mohammad Asim Bashir, 31, has appeared at Manchester Crown Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of preparing an act of terrorism.

He has admitted driving to the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire with Jihad Al-Shamie to carry out a hostile reconnaissance mission on 14 August 2025.

Al-Shamie was shot dead by police after carrying out the Heaton Park Synagogue attack, in which two Jewish men were killed, just weeks after the reconnaissance trip with Bashir.

Manchester-born Bashir, of Shaftesbury Road in Cheetham, is not accused of being part of the synagogue attack.

However, Jonathan Polnay KC, prosecuting, said: "The prosecution case is that Mohammad Bashir is a long-standing, committed jihadist.

"The attack that was being planned [on the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham] was of the sort that Jihad Al-Shamie in fact carried out on 2 October at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester.

"An attack involving weapons that would cause multiple fatalities and have national and international impact."

The court heard that the journey from Manchester to the military base in Shrivenham and back took 10 hours.

Polnay said analysis of Bashir and Al-Shamie's WhatsApp messages to each other "demonstrated they were both close associates and both shared in an extremist world view".

"They were both interested in, and regularly discussed, violent jihad."

The prosecution said some of these WhatsApp exchanges were about "getting ready for 'war'".

Polnay said: "CCTV from the Sunnah Mosque in Manchester, combined with [data from a phone belonging to Al-Shamie], demonstrates that both men were planning a terrorist attack on the [defence] Station at Shrivenham in advance of 14 August."

CCTV images played to the court showed what the two men were looking at on the screens of their mobile phones, five days before the trip to Shrivenham.

The footage also recorded the sound of their conversation.

Al-Shamie accessed the Defence Academy UK website and also looked at a websites with articles about UK links to the Israel-Gaza war, the court heard.

The CCTV played to the court also showed Bashir making a gesture with the raised index finger of his right hand. The prosecution said this gesture was associated with jihadist groups.

MoD Shrivenham is the home of the UK 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.

In mitigation, Mohammed Nawaz KC, defending, said Bashir's parents and family were practising Muslims and he was brought up as a peaceable and non-violent Sunni Muslim.

Nawaz said testimonials described Bashir as "a decent, hard-working, caring man" and people were "surprised and shocked" at his offending.

"Somewhere along the line something must have changed from the way he was brought up. Something changed in his thinking and his approach and his interpretation of his religion."

Nawaz said Bashir met Al-Shamie in 2023 but was not initially aware of his extremist views, though he accepted that his client must have known about them for a year before the reconnaissance trip.

However, Nawaz said there was no evidence that Bashir and Al-Shamie had discussed or planned an attack over many months. The first evidence of that came in August 2025 from the CCTV from the mosque.

Nawaz also said an important element of mitigation was that Bashir had a change of heart after he drove to the Defence Academy at Shrivenham.

His contact with Al-Shamie "tailed off", he said, and there was no attack involving Bashir.

"There was a genuine change of heart on the part of the defendant," he said.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she would sentence Bashir at 1000 tomorrow.

Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed after 35-year-old Al-Shamie, from Prestwich, drove his Kia Picanto into the gates of the synagogue and began attacking people with a knife.

Al Shamie, who was wearing a fake suicide belt, was killed by police gunfire at the scene.

Bashir went to Pakistan following the synagogue attack, but was arrested at Manchester Airport when he returned.

The sentencing hearing is expected to last two days.

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