Terror suspects: charges dropped
Updated on 13 February 2008
Five students from Bradford walk free from the Court of Appeal as their conviction for holding terrorist literature is quashed.
They were jailed last year for "commission, preparation or instigation" of terrorism, after being found in possession of extremist jihadi literature and computer files.
Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, said that though they were "intoxicated" by this material, he found no evidence of intent to commit terrorist acts.
The ruling has significant implications for other terrorist cases.
The five men who walked free from the high court had become intoxicated by the extremist material they collected, their trial judge said last year.
They'd been imprisoned after discs and documents containing, the judge said, the language of violent jihad, had been discovered.
But now their convictions have been quashed after the appeal court decided they didn't have them for terrorist purposes.
The men, dubbed the Bradford Five by one of their lawyers because four had studied at the university there, had books, videos and songs described in court as jihadi material.
All the men had in one from or other a document called Join the Caravan, encouraging Muslims to fight.
There were computer montages of 21-year-old Aitzaz Zafar, his face depicted alongside those of the 9/11 hijackers and another image of Mr Zafar and 20-year-old Awaab Iqbal as fighters.
The five men also had videos of suicide attacks in Iraq but their lawyers and families believe they were prosecuted for a thought crime.
In early 2006 the police were alerted by Mohammed Raja's family.
He was then just a schoolboy and instead of going to school he went to Bradford to meet the others who he had only spoken to via the internet.
He left a note for his parents saying he was going to fight abroad. He told them, "just in case you think I am going to do something in this country you can rest easy that I am not. The conventional method of warfare is safer."
But the court of appeal today ruled there had to be a direct link between what the men were reading and watching and a terrorist act.
This decision could have implications for others in possession of material like al-Qaida training videos, who have been convicted or face prosecution under section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
But the government brought in new anti-terror legislation last year and in a statement tonight the Home Office said it would wait to see if the Crown Prosecution Service appealed today's decision.
The Home Office statement also said:
"We will study this judgement carefully. Public safety remains the top priority of the government.
"The threat to the UK from international terrorism remains real and serious and the government is committed to ensuring we have the strongest possible counter-terrorism legal framework."
The men's release appears to mean others can now download extremist material as long as they don't intend to use it.
