The sister-in-law of the alleged Isis executioner known as 'Jihadi Sid' has been jailed for three years for trying to smuggle her four young children into Syria.

Zahera Tariq, of Walthamstow, disappeared last summer with her daughter and three sons, aged between five and 13, sparking an international manhunt when her distraught husband alerted the police.

The 33-year-old denied four counts of child abduction but was found guilty by the jury after a four day trial and sentenced today (February 23) at Southwark Crown Court.

She travelled from London City Airport on August 25 last year to Amsterdam Schiphol, and from there on to Istanbul.

Tariq was eventually arrested on August 29 in Kilis, one of the crossing points from Turkey into Syria.

She was trying to join one of her four sisters, Aisha Tariq, who fled the country in September 2014 with her husband Siddhartha Dhar and their four children.

A propaganda video released last month allegedly showed Mr Dhar, the former bouncy castle salesman from Walthamstow, murdering five hostages.

Tariq’s husband, 42-year-old Mahmood, worked six days a week at a dry cleaners in Edmonton.

He was described as a “straightforward man of no sophistication” who was unable to give police the exact ages of his own children.

He was completely unaware of his wife's plans and had not given permission for her to take the children.

Mahmood said he had not initially been worried when he came home to an empty house at around 6pm, but started to panic at 10pm.

Tariq claimed she and her husband had discussed travelling to Turkey with the children to try and persuade her sister to cross the border and come home.

She said she and her family were in regular contact with her sister in Syria and used Skype and telephone calls to get regular updates.

Tariq said during the trial: “We tried speaking to her saying ‘look what you are doing, come back’.”

“She would say to us 'no, I'm fine - I have got a lovely house, it's beautiful, it's green’.”

Mahmood then told his wife he was going back to work on August 24.

“I said to him 'what about our plans - we have been waiting to go for almost a year now',” she added.

“I was so, so angry - I said to him had that been your sister you would not have thought twice.”

On the Friday before taking the flight Tariq visited a travel agent and bought luggage, selling jewellery she had worn at her wedding to fund the trip.

She insisted her husband had been well aware of her plan and that he had said his goodbyes to his children the night before the trip.

Prosecutor Mukal Chawla said: “One parent cannot simply take a child or children abroad without the consent of the other parent.

“To do so without the consent of the other parent amounts to the offence of child abduction and that's what this defendant is charged with.”

Mahmood did not receive a call from his wife until August 30 after her arrest by the Turkish authorities in Kilis.

Upon the family's repatriation to the UK, Tariq was initially held at Luton airport.

She answered "no comment" to all questions put to her by police.