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.

[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.

[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.

[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.