A man who was put on trial after collecting terrorist instruction manuals was cleared of all charges yesterday.

Musse Yusuf (31) downloaded thousands of files including The Mujahideen Terrorist Handbook and a fitness training programme for Al-Qaeda recruits.

Mr Yusuf, a Somalian Muslim, was arrested at his home in Higgs Close, Evington, Leicester, on May 28, 2008, during an investigation into his links with a militant group in Somalia.

But, during his trial at the Old Bailey, he claimed that the material was to be used in legitimate self-defence by resistance forces back in his homeland against invading Ethiopian troops.

He was cleared after a jury at the Old Bailey failed to reach verdicts of four charges of possessing documents for terrorist purposes.

The prosecution decided against a retrial because it was the second time a jury has failed to reach a verdict on the same counts.

Mr Yusuf, who is married to a British woman, fled his homeland during the civil war.

He told the court he became involved in the "Somali Network for Peace" and supported the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which came to power in June 2006.

But the ICU was forced out of the Somalian capital Mogadishu after Ethiopian forces invaded.

The ICU's militant wing, Al Shabab, was seen in parts of the Western media as a Taliban-style group, but Mr Yusuf claimed the ICU was not an Islamic extremist organisation.

He said he was approached by the leader of the ICU, who is now the President of Somali, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, to help organise relief for the Somalian people left homeless after the invasion.

Mr Yusuf claimed he downloaded the bomb-making files so they could be used by the resistance fighters in his homeland.

He said: "There was only one enemy and it was Ethiopian troops.

"This resistance didn't have any other enemy. The purpose was to get the Ethiopians out and live free again."

Mr Yusuf added: "I was thinking of going back to Somalia to take part in the resistance.

"I thought, what could I do to contribute to my people and what occurred to me was taking with me some internet files that could be useful in Somalia."

The files were later found on two computer hard drives at his home.

The prosecution had argued that Mr Yusuf's intentions did not matter, only that the material was of use to terrorists.

Prosecutor Max Hill said: "These two hard drives were found to contain very large quantities of material. They are terrorist videos and terrorist manuals or handbooks."

He added: "Amongst this material was material that suggested support for the cause of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan."