Man guilty of passport deception

Yezza was found guilty of lying about his passport

An Algerian man, formerly employed by the University of Nottingham, has been found guilty at Northampton Crown Court of an immigration offence.

Hicham Yezza, of Barker Gate, was arrested in May 2008 on suspicion of possessing extremist material and detained under the Terrorism Act.

He was released without charge but then re-arrested on an immigration offence.

Yezza had denied a charge of securing avoidance of enforcement action by deceptive means.

The case has been adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Passport claim

Yezza claimed his old passport, containing a stamp which allowed him to stay in the country until December 2007, had been stolen.

But the passport was found in May 2008 in a flat he used as postal address, by authorities investigating terrorism offences.

Officers raided the flat after Yezza printed off an al Qaida manual to help postgraduate student Rizean Sabir, 22, with his dissertation.

Both men were detained for six days while the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit investigated allegations they had illegally downloaded extremist material.

Mr Sabir was released without charge but Yezza was re-arrested after the stolen passport was found and only had a stamp inside it allowing him to stay in the UK until January 2003.

A jury of seven men and four men found Yezza guilty of the deception.