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The Court of Appeal has quashed the convictions of five young Muslim men jailed over extremist literature.
Freeing the men, the Lord Chief Justice said their conviction for downloading extremist propaganda was unsafe.
An Old Bailey trial convicted the men last year after hearing they had become obsessed with extremist jihadi websites and literature.
In a statement the men said they were overjoyed at being freed and their prosecution should never have happened.
At their trial, they said they had been uniquely prosecuted for what they had read, rather than anything they had done.
In one of the first trials of its kind, Irfan Raja, Awaab Iqbal, Aitzaz Zafar, Usman Malik and Akbar Butt were jailed in 2007 for downloading and sharing extremist terrorism-related material. The men all received sentences of between two and three years.
Originally posted by Rasobasi420
Is information dangerous? Who makes the decision as to what info is dangerous? Terrorist material is a pretty vague term.
If you hadn't guessed, I'm in favor of this decision. You can't arrest someone for possessing information. If they choose to act on it, or if there's any evidence that they chose to act on it is another thing all together.
Originally posted by Grenade
So if i had information regarding an upcoming terrorist attack, i was freely sharing hate speech and inciting violence, by your reckoning i would be doing nothing wrong? Afterall its up to me if i let innocent people die, right?
I must have missed that part of the article. Someone has proven (or even said) they had this information on upcoming attacks and were inciting violence? I understood it to say they had downloaded and read information (or propaganda) ... and were probably discussing it possibly even laughing at it .. but since they were Muslim and had the information in their possesion they were arrested, tried AND convicted? Gotta say I'm glad it got overturned.
[edit on 2/13/08 by reblazed]
Originally posted by Grenade
I find it hard to believe the judge convicted them for simply looking at some information.
Please read my previous post point by point before coming to a conclusion on my point of view. Without the actual details on the case no-one is able to judge their motives or actions.
I will try and do some research into exactly what thier activities were and then we can have a clearer picture of their crime, if any.
I do however think that to make it to court and prosecuted involves a lot of time and money, obviously various law enforcement official's initially seen this as a crime.
Wouldnt the individuals involved have a better idea then we do?
Keep an open mind, i think some aspects of radical Islam, teachings and literature should be outlawed. I dont want a dictatorship however i would prefer that to total anarchy.
Originally posted by Grenade
So if i had information regarding an upcoming terrorist attack, i was freely sharing hate speech and inciting violence, by your reckoning i would be doing nothing wrong? Afterall its up to me if i let innocent people die, right?
The material included publications popular among extreme Islamist organisations, encouraging Muslims to fight.
One of the five had also used a computer to superimpose his own face on a montage of the 9/11 hijackers.
The trial heard police found material on their computers downloaded from the internet, and chatroom conversations said to be intended to encourage terrorism or martyrdom.
Among the items found was a film showing atrocities against Muslims around the world, aimed at encouraging martyrdom.
Prosecutors said the men also had a US military guide to terrorism and a suicide bombing manual.
But their lawyers said the law was designed to catch people holding plans for bombs rather than propaganda.
None of the men possessed information suggesting they were plotting a bomb attack, although there had been talk of heading to Pakistan for paramilitary training.