Decision to free five in terror case may help Scot's appeal

Published on Thursday 14 February 2008 00:37

A SCOTTISH student jailed for terrorism-related offences last year hopes a Court of Appeal decision in England may help to free him.

Five men jailed for similar crimes walked free yesterday. Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, sitting with two other judges, quashed their convictions and ordered their release.

The ruling will be studied by lawyers planning an appeal against the conviction of Mohammed Atif Siddique, a Scottish student jailed for eight years for possessing and distributing terrorism-related materials on the internet.

The decision to restrict how the law on extremist literature works will also have huge implications for counter-terrorism prosecutions.

Civil liberty campaigners and Muslim community leaders argue that section 57 of the 2000 Terrorism Act has been used as a "blunt instrument" to prosecute where there is no proof of genuine links to terrorism.

Four of the jailed men, all Bradford University students, were arrested after a London schoolboy, Mohammed Irfan Raja, ran away from home in February 2006.

He left a note for his parents saying he was going to fight abroad and they would meet again in heaven, the Old Bailey heard last year.

The prosecution said they were all planning to go to Pakistan for training, before going to fight for the jihad.

The material included ideological propaganda, as well as communications between the appellants and others.

Police also found a US military guide giving instructions on how to make explosive devices and a suicide-bombing manual, as well as chatroom conversations that encouraged terrorism or martyrdom.

The prosecution alleged the material showed a settled plan under which the men would travel to Pakistan for training and "thereafter commit a terrorist act or acts in Afghanistan".

Raja, now 20, of Ilford, east London, and students Awaab Iqbal, 20, of Bradford, West Yorkshire; Aitzaz Zafar, 21, of Rochdale, Lancashire; Usman Ahmed Malik, 22, of Bradford; and Akbar Butt, 21, of Southall, west London, who faced charges for having extreme material on their computers, were in the dock of the court yesterday for the ruling.

Raja was serving two years' youth detention, Zafar and Iqbal had been given three years' detention, Malik was sent to prison for three years and Butt was given 27 months' detention.

When sentencing, Judge Peter Beaumont said they were preparing to train in Pakistan and then fight in Afghanistan against its allies, which included British soldiers.

All denied having articles for terrorism and said the material, downloaded from websites, was not intended to encourage terrorism or martyrdom. They denied having extremist views and some said they were researching ideology and other matters.

Last night, Aamer Anwar, Siddique's lawyer, said he would be meeting Imran Khan, the solicitor who represents the five freed men, within weeks.

"This decision will be scrutinised by us to see if there are any implications," Mr Anwar said.

Allowing the men's appeals yesterday, Lord Phillips, sitting with Mr Justice Owen and Mr Justice Bean in London, said: "We do not consider that it was made plain to the jury… that the case that the appellants had to face was that they possessed the extremist material for use in the future to incite the commission of terrorist acts.

"We doubt whether the evidence supported such a case."