Terrorist who violated house arrest causes UK officials to conclude 'mental illness has not diminished his committment to the extremist cause'

The silencing of a fearless man

Born Francis Asibong Etim in South London in 1958, Sulayman Balal Zain-al-Abidin worked for much of his life as an itinerant chef. After completing schooling in 1974 he took a City & Guilds course in catering and also signed up as a reserve in the Royal Green Jackets battalion from 1976-1979. He adopted Islam in 1979, and his choice of surname, drawing on the memory of the Prophet's family and his great-grandson in particular is also a clue to a young man's journey to a new faith. This was the moment of the reassertion of Islam in Iran and Sulayman once observed that "when I embraced Islam I was fortunate enough, by the grace of Allah, to be in that period when Ayatullah Khomeini was saying ‘No East, No West, Islam is the Best' ".

Sulayman died on 22 December 2002, and if justice is to be done, there are many who will need to be called to the dock to answer for their vendetta against a harmless man - the mob of Fleet Street, a police force obsessed with results, and a Member of Parliament with an agenda.

Sulayman's conversion to Islam coincided with a turbulent period of twentieth century Muslim history – not only was he caught up in the tremendous excitement of the Islamic revolution of Iran, but also the Afghan war against the Soviets, Rushdie's vilification, the frustration of the Iraq-Iran War, the first Intifada, the Lockerbie plane bomb, the frustration when FIS in Algeria were denied their electoral victory and subsequent chaos, the Kuwaiti invasion by Iraq, and the plight of the Bosnians and then the Kosovars. Sulayman channelled his energy and enthusiasm to the causes of the day, holding his own on the soapbox at Speakers Corner and visiting prisons as a Muslim helper. Perhaps drawing on his Army experience, he also provided self-defence and survival training to Muslim youth groups. At no time did he visit Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Chechnya. He did visit Libya in connection with the campaign for a fair trial of those charged as responsible for the Lockerbie crash, Palestine, as part of a Muslim delegation, and the USA (in 1998).

In 1999 Sulayman ventured into the business world with a one-man enterprise, Sakina Security Services. This company's website, registered in Sulayman's name, offered enrolment to ‘the ultimate jehad challenge', a course conducted in the US. The site was one of bravado and hyperbole, referring to the skills needed to conduct ‘high profile missions'. The website declared support for various Muslim causes, including Chechnya and the liberation of Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. This, and his earlier Palestine visit, led to Sulayman being a marked man.

There followed a period of intense pressure from the Police to disclose personal information and details of acquaintances and also serve as a potential police witness. A police officer also stated that if he did not turn up for interview at the Charing Cross station and was not willing to say anything then an application would be made to the Court to commit him to prison for contempt of Court and he would be imprisoned. Sulayman resisted and was arrested on 15 March 1999 under Prevention of Terrorism charges. His solicitors, Arani & Co, were able to obtain legal aid for instigating proceedings. Arani & Co were further successful in an ex-parte application for an explanation order, obtained at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, and Sulayman was released. However he was then re-arrested on a conspiracy to kidnap and released on bail. Arani & Co successfully obtained further legal aid for instigating proceedings against the police for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.

In August 1999 Channel 4 broadcast a sensationalist ‘Dispatches' to "Kill or to be Killed", to which Sulayman had unwittingly contributed. Arani & Co were unable to pursue a restraining injunction on the TV company because legal aid was not available. Sulayman, now in poor health from an arthritis condition and struggling to make ends meet, was confronted by relentless forces: on 21 September 1999, London's Evening Standard ran a sensationalist headline stating that a London security firm was sending Muslim fighters to Afghanistan. Sulayman was described to as a terrorist. The Hendon MP Andrew Dismore wrote to the police and called for his arrest.

Arani & Co immediately contacted the police on Sulayman's behalf, requesting police protection for him and his family. Sulayman then visited Plumstead Police Station, where he attempted to explain that his security services were above board, bona fide and barely profitable.

Andrew Dismore pursued the matter in Parliament, on 25 May 2000 raising a question with the Home Secretary to establish what action would be taken "in respect of the activities of Sakina Security Services relating to British Islamic fundamentalists and firearms and explosives training in the United States". Arani & Co would show that only one person had ever enrolled on Sakina's training course, - a Sainsbury's security guard who traveled to a commercial bodyguard training camp in the United States and that the web site notice offered the same type of training course advertised by 125 different English companies. In fact some of the site's content had been taken - without permission - from a US security company's web site. Notwithstanding all this, in the aftermath of September 11 Sulayman was arrested on 1st October 2001 charged with providing training in guns and explosives, an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Andrew Dismore continued the pursuit of his quarry. On 16 October 2001 he observed in Parliament that "Sakina is an Islamist security organisation with extremely close links to al-Muhajiroun and Supporters of Sharia. Sakina sends people overseas for jihad training with live arms and ammunition. It is hostile to the British Government, police and security services, and regularly issues threats to British interests in the United Kingdom and overseas. It is also particularly anti-semitic and appears to have singled out the Jewish community as its direct adversary. In October 2000, Sakina launched an appeal for donations to the Al Aqsa Liberation Fund to raise money to support the Palestinian jihad….Sakina also organises training in many different sites in the United Kingdom. However, its activities are not limited to that. A bulletin board posted on its website a year ago today claimed that Sakina operatives were in ‘occupied Palestine, sisterly Lebanon and in Jordan' ready to fight in the Palestinian jihad. Although the police have acted, I regret that the Department of Trade and Industry has done nothing to close the company. So far, only one Sakina associate, Sulayman Bilal Zain-ul Abidin—also known as Frank Etim—has been arrested and charged with offences under the Terrorism Act 2000".

After a ten month incarceration in the Belmarsh high security prison, Sulayman was brought to trial in the Old Bailey in August 2002. The prosecution case was that Sakina Security Services was a front for Al-Qaida, for "the pursuit of jihad, a holy war, against the perceived enemies of Islam". These allegations could not be backed by evidence to convince a jury, and after four days of deliberation, Sulayman was acquitted. Faced with financial ruin, in poor health and a house repossessed, he planned to sue the police for unlawful arrest. He told the press, "If you speak up for oppressed people, it means you are a terrorist. If you give money to any Muslim charity organisations, you're funding terrorism". At his trial he explained Jehad as struggle in its widest sense. It is a tribute to his character that he did not lose a sense of humour and could draw on his Catholic upbringing to reinforce the point, "the priest used to say every Sunday take this bread all of you and eat it - this is the body of Isa alayhissalam, asthagfullah, and then he would say take this water and drink it - this is the blood of Isa alayhissalam, asthagfullah. So if I was to act like they do and take the religion out of context I'd say look at these people they are promoting cannibalism".

The due process of law however did not quell Andrew Dismore's concerns, who was reported as describing the verdict as very disappointing. FBI sources also confirmed that they were still investigating an alleged link between Sakina and James Ujaama, arrested in Denver, Colorado, for delivering laptop computers to the Taliban.

Sulayman believed that the police would be carrying out a character assassination against Muddasir Arani, his solicitor. He was on the verge of disclosing this information to her in December 2002 when he was taken into hospital on an emergency basis for a knee operation. A friend recounts that "Sulayman was laughing and joking with us for the first two days after his operation. He was sitting up in bed and said he felt fine. By the third day he seemed drowsy and his wife became alarmed. After that he slipped in to a coma. His drug records went missing and no one seemed to know what medication he had been given. It all sounded very suspicious and then on Sunday he died. He never came out of his coma".

Maddassar Arani notes that, "His wife did not want a post mortem examination on religious grounds and because of her wishes no tests or examinations have been carried out. She does not want her husband's body to be exhumed to try and prove foul play or medical negligence. She has lost her husband and no amount of legal activity and claims can bring back her husband. She did not want his burial delayed and wants no further pain for her husband. We have to respect her wishes. The cause of death on the certificate has been given as cardiac arrest, organ failure, a septic knee and arthritis. His death is very suspicious. The day before he went into hospital he said he wanted to see me about something very important. He said he had some vital information about the anti- terrorist squad, but did not want to discuss it over the telephone."

(Sources: http://www.inminds.co.uk/sep11-hidden-victims.html#t2; http://www.ummahnews.com/viewarticle.php?sid=887;
http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4488436,00.html;
solicitor Mudassar Arani of Arani & Co)