Check your links
Have you visited everyone you've linked to on your website recently, better do it now - go on I'll wait.... all done, good. Did any of them give information about how to blow stuff up, go on a religious rampage, or how to use weapons; if so get rid of them now before you're picked up as a terrorist. Yep linking to sites that provide such information is now "providing instruction or training in the making or use of firearms and explosives by means of the Internet." Appears not to matter that it's not your site, or even in the same country that you're being charged in, heck for all we know the original link was to the site because of its great recipe for banana fritters before they took that down and replaced it with "Jihad!!! Kill all the infidels". Nah "It does not appear to be disputed that you did set up this website and it clear that you knew what the content of the [links] was."
So the defendant also had documents deemed to be terrorist manuals (perhaps like the Anarchist's Cookbook) and videos which were 'hidden' in the windows\options folder wow sophisticated.
Best of all
It is clear from the evidence that you did not have this material because of some innocent curiosity. Indeed there was no evidence, other than the most passing of remarks during one of your interviews, that your downloading of this material was mere idle curiosity.So unless you can demonstrate that you have this (freely available possibly legal) material for some innocent purpose you must have it for nefarious reasons. So one of the charges is?
"...offence of distributing or circulating terrorist publications with the intention of encouraging or inducing or assisting in acts of terrorism. Given that you were providing internet access to what are admittedly terrorist publications, it is difficult to see what else was intended other than the encouragement etc of terrorism."No previous convictions, a record of good character, taking into consideration "you may have been been highly impressionable and vulnerable to the teachings of others." Eight years m'laddo.
Yep so if you do link to sites like this always include a disclaimer, in fact best just to put up a disclaimer full stop. Oh and follow all links from your sites in this manner "I'm just linking this site don't judge me by it".
2 comments:
This ruling potentially puts anyone other than those who can prove they are "terrorist experts" under the suspicion that they've downloaded/linked to such material because they are in fact terrorist sympathisers. 8 years is a ridiculous sentence, especially considering that many rapists and child abusers often receive less jail time. This also comes at a time when the prison service is admitting that those who are sympathetic towards Islamism are becoming more indoctrinated in prison, not less. Who's to say this man isn't even more dangerous after his stay in jail than he was beforehand?
It's a strange situation, if you read the ruling one of the points made was that his later claim to be studying such groups was dismissed as he hadn't mentioned it before and hadn't mentioned to anybody else - ergo he's hiding something.
And as you say if he wasn't a terrorist sympathiser before jail, I'd put the chances of him now becoming one that much higher.
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