Isa Giga, 32, formerly living in Hounslow in West London, was arrested at Heathrow Airport last year on May 23 following a flight from Turkey. The 32-year-old was arrested following an investigation led by the force’s Counter Terrorism Command. In 2018, police were notified that Giga had travelled to Syria via Turkey to fight for the group Jaysh Al Fath, part of an alliance of Islamist armed factions fighting in the Syrian civil war. Evidence also was gathered by police with the use of an undercover officer who had been messaging Giga in 2016. Giga also said he supported ‘Nusra’, part of the Jaysh Al Fath group, and ‘wanted martyrdom very soon in the first row’ (the battlefield in Syria).
