Friend of Manchester synagogue attacker jailed for plot on military base

A friend of the Manchester synagogue attacker has been jailed for life with a minimum of 17 years after the pair planned a separate attack on a military base.Mohammad Bashir, 31, drove Jihad Al-Shamie on a 10-hour round trip to conduct hostile reconnaissance at the UK's Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, on 14 August 2025.Weeks after that journey, Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police after carrying out the Heaton Park Synagogue attack, in which two Jewish men were killed.Bashir, from Cheetham Hill, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to one count of preparing an act of terrorism.Sentencing Bashir, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him that by August last year he had become a "firmly committed jihadist".He and Al-Shamie were "equally engaged" in planning an attack on a British military target "in which you and he expected to kill and be killed", she said. She rejected his claim to a probation officer that he no longer held extremist views and regretted his actions.The judge said: "I consider you remain dangerous. You have given no grounds that your attitude has really changed at all."Following sentencing, Manchester-born Bashir, who also holds a Pakistani passport, smiled to family members in the upper public gallery of the courtroom as he walked from the dock.