Jailed for making notes about bombs?

[ciphergoth]

Man jailed for 15 years on terror charges

On the balance of probabilities, I think the guy's a wrongun. But beyond reasonable doubt?

Jailed for making notes about bombs argues that he was just a nutter with an Al-Qaeda fixation, unlikely to actually do anything. Maybe.

Comments

[zotz]

Hard to say based on very brief articles. The only thing that strikes me as really incriminating is the socks - he says he handled packed explosives eight years earlier and it still shows up on his socks? Well, maybe. It sounds a bit sus, but I'm no expert.

Apart from that, it all seems quite consistent with him just being a bit of a fantasist.

[zotz]

And of course the jury didn't find on that charge - he was only convicted for the notebooks.

[lovingboth]

Hmmm, I'm not so sure. He's doing something for someone, even if it's "just" carrying money around for Chechnics.

I wonder what tests were done on everyone who was on the coach at Dover when a gun and two grenades were found (see Times story).

[zotz]

He's doing something for someone

Well-travelled bloke, isn't he? Yes, thanks for that link.

I'd be interested in knowing what sort of tests they ran generally. They seem to be confident about having found four very specific explosives.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

It does read as very very circumstantial.

Makes you think there is going to be a very birmingham 6 style aquital later on.

It does make you wonder what its considered safe to know - especially if you are knowlegable about the sciences....

I remember mid last year getting grilled by the officer on the other end of the phone when I called to report someone setting off blatantly category 5 fireworks at 2am in the middle of a housing estate.

He was more bothered that I knew the difference (the reason for my knowlege being close association with someone that is category 5 rated - ie can use display class fireworks - and would really like to go for the rating myself, though my wife said I have to grow up first)

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

I dont like this on the facts I have read. Fantasists are not terrorists without evidence of terrorism.

I agree totally! Just like fantasists are not ...

[bondagewoodelf.livejournal.com]

.. rapists because they have written an erotic story with that element in it
.. murderers because an author wrote a book with a murder in it (even if he describes the murderer's mind from the inside)

Can someone really get jailed 15 years! for all that's in his or her mind?!

[lovingboth]

Clearly yes, if they're stupid enough to put it on paper.

What's odd is that they've treated two very similar things - the code words and the mortar instructions - as two separate crimes. I think making the sentences consecutive rather than concurrent is very dubious.

[lovingboth]

We'll find out more when it ends up in the Court of Appeal.

Bet there's going to be one.

Some interesting things in the Times' story.

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

He does appear, as you put it 'a wrongun', but I'm having difficulty seeing the justification beyond reasonable doubt for 15 years.

[aster13.livejournal.com]

agreed.

[narnee.livejournal.com]

There's no way that was beyond reasonable doubt. Additionally, I doubt that making notes on publicly-available information (even on bomb-making) as an act of preparation for terrorism will hold up in an appeal; if it is, it's a chilling precedent for rather a few angry teenagers.

[lovingboth]

Well, a jury not prepared to convict on the socks thought it was. Having a one-time pad was a major reason for the conviction of an Eastern block spy in the 1990s, after all.

My bets are a) it will go to appeal, b) the conviction will be upheld and c) the sentence will be reduced.