Mother who admitted posting IS propaganda will not face jail after ruling by leading judges

Leading judges have rejected a bid to overturn a suspended sentence handed to a mother-of-five after she posted Islamic State propaganda on a Facebook group.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright had argued that the non-custodial term imposed in the case of Farhana Ahmed was "unduly lenient".

Attorney General Jeremy Wright
Attorney General Jeremy Wright

But three judges at the Court of Appeal in London on Thursday announced that they were exercising their discretion not to interfere with the sentence.

Lord Justice Treacy said Ahmed had already served the equivalent of a 13-month sentence while on remand for the offences.

Any change to the sentence by the court, taking into account her guilty pleas and strong personal mitigation, would have "no practical effect".

In November at the Old Bailey, Judge Christopher Moss gave Ahmed a two-year suspended sentence after she pleaded guilty to encouraging terrorism and three counts of disseminating documents.

The judge said he was moved by the "suffering" of her children and told Ahmed that in her "exceptional" case, the sooner she was returned to them, the better for all concerned.

The court heard her behaviour was borne from a difficult period of her life and she had now rejected extremism.

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