The family of a former Taliban fighter convicted of attempting to recruit two undercover police officers for jihad in Afghanistan face losing their £200,000 home under anti-terrorism laws.

Munir Farooqi, 56, was given four life sentences in September 2011 for running a 'recruitment centre' for home-grown extremists to go to Afghanistan to kill British troops.



His family have now spoken of how it is 'sickening' that they face being made homeless if Farooqi loses his High Court appeal next month against his conviction.

The house in Longsight, Manchester, is home to three generations of the Farooqi family, including two children, according to The Independent.

The Crown Prosecution Service's Proceeds of Crime Unit served the family with a notice at the end of Farooqi's trial for soliciting to murder and disseminating terrorist literature.

The notice informed the Farooqis that they intended to seize the house under Section 23a of the Terrorism Act. But the judge in the case ordered it could not go ahead until Farooqi's appeal against the terror conviction had been heard.

The family's supporters who oppose the seizure say they are being punished even though they have done nothing wrong.

Munir Farooqi's son Harris, 29, a market trader who was cleared of terror charges at the 2011 trial, said eight people lived at the home, owned by his sister and mother.

He told The Independent: 'How can they demonise a whole family? It is sickening.

'You have to be insane deliberately to make a family go through such torture and to claim they are all terrorists.'
The property could be seized under anti-terrorism laws because the court found attempts took place there to radicalise men and persuade them to take part in jihad.

The family told the paper they are confident their father, who was ordered to serve a minimum of nine years, will win his appeal and that the undercover police investigation was unlawful.

The family's solicitor Simon Pook said the act had been misinterpreted. He said it could be in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights if it created case law. Nearly 20,000 people have signed a petition opposing the seizure of the house.

During his trial, Manchester Crown Court heard how Farooqi was at the centre of a plot to radicalise and persuade vulnerable young men to 'fight, kill and die'.

Over a two year period Farooqi - who boasted of being a jihadist and was detained in Afghanistan in 2001- tried to persuade people visiting his stall to travel to training camps in Afghanistan.

He was arrested in November 2009 after two white undercover policemen infiltrated the recruiting school and underwent radicalisation ceremonies in the basement of his terraced home.

During the undercover investigation one of the detectives taped Farooqi boasting: ‘If we die, we win. You have Allah on your side, how can we lose?
‘You know Jihad is not about you giving your life away. If we’re going to go there you make sure you take at least 40 or 50 people with us so we’ve done something.’

In September 2011 Farooqi was convicted of three charges of soliciting murder, preparing for acts of terrorism and distributing terrorist publications after a four month trial. He was jailed for a minimum of nine years.
A CPS spokesman said: 'The Crown Prosecution Service is making an application under S23a of the Terrorism Act 2000 for the forfeiture of Munir Farooqi’s home... on the basis that it has been used for the purposes of terrorism.

'The power to forfeit residential premises in these circumstances is a new power under the Counter Terrorism Act 2008, and before any decision is made, the forfeiture application is considered by the court and the family will be given an opportunity to be heard.

'The court will consider the effect of any order on the family members.'