Terrorist material 'available on web'

Published on Tuesday 30 June 2009 22:03

MUCH of the material in the possession of Scotland's first convicted Islamist terrorist which helped secure his conviction is widely available on the internet, an appeal court was told yesterday.

Mohammed Atif Siddique's lawyer said he had been found in possession of a large quantity of al-Qaeda propaganda, but there was nothing secretive about the material and it was all readily available on the web.

Donald Findlay QC told the court that Siddique had been convicted of possessing articles in circumstances "which give rise to a reasonable suspicion the possession is for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism".

The student had been detained at Glasgow airport as he was about to fly to Pakistan, and police found a variety of material on his laptop computer and at his home.

Mr Findlay said the material included an al-Qaeda recruitment video, a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden and a discussion of whether suicide if performed in martyrdom was accepted in the Koran. "All of this was out there," he said. "It was the easiest thing in the world to access it."

Siddique, jailed for eight years for terrorism offences, continued to protest his innocence yesterday as he began an appeal against his conviction.

Siddique, 23, of Alva, Clackmannanshire, was a student of Glasgow's Metropolitan College when he was found guilty in 2007 of threatening to become a suicide bomber, and of offences under the 2000 and 2006 Terrorism Acts, including the possession of bomb-making instructions. He was dubbed Scotland's first Islamist terrorist.

Siddique claimed at his trial that he was not a terrorist but someone with a general interest in the motives of terrorists who had carried out research on the subject through the internet.

Yesterday, Aamer Anwar, Siddique's solicitor, arrived at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh with the accused's parents, Mohammed and Parveen.

Mr Anwar said: "Mohammed Siddique has asked me to state on his behalf that since (his arrest in] April 2006, he has maintained his innocence. These have been three long and hard years for him and his family. However, he is still full of hope and believes in justice."

The hearing continues.