Jihadist gets five years for calling for Blair's murder

An Islamic fundamentalist who urged his fellow Muslims to help assassinate Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was jailed for five years yesterday. Ishaq Kanmi, 24, wrote on a jihadist website that the two former prime ministers would be targeted by "martyrdom-seekers" if his demands were not met.

He posed online as Umar Rabie, leader of the self-styled "al-Qai'da in Britain", as he composed messages on a public computer at Blackburn Central Library. The supposed offshoot of the terror group was fictitious and there was no evidence that the defendant had any links to Osama Bin Laden, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Kanmi, of Blackburn, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to professing to belong to al-Qa'ida and inviting support for the group.