London — An unemployed computer programmer was sentenced Wednesday to a year in jail for amassing a library of books about bomb-making and terrorism.
Mohammed Azam, 32, had pleaded guilty to possessing information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism." Prosecutors said they did not suspect him of belonging to a terrorist group or plotting an attack.
He was arrested in September after police searched his home in Luton, north of London, as part of a drug inquiry. Detectives said they discovered more than 140 books on topics including urban terrorism, guns and bomb-making.
Prosecutors at Southwark Crown Court said that Mr. Azam, who has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, bought the books over the Internet five years ago when he was contemplating going to Algeria to fight for an Islamic state.
The defence claimed that Mr. Azam was confused when he considered the trip.
"I am satisfied by what I have been told by the Crown and what I have learned about you that your offense is very much toward the bottom of the scale," Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said.
Mr. Azam, a Briton of Pakistani origin, faced up to 10 years in prison.
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