Published: Wednesday, 1st July, 2009 2:57pm

Convicted terrorist"s appeal to be set free

Print | Email

AN ALVA student convicted of terrorist offences returned to court on Tuesday to ask appeal judges to free him.

Student Mohammed Siddique (23) is serving eight years after a trial which branded him Scotland"s first Islamist terrorist.

But at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, defence QC Donald Findlay said supposedly damning material produced at his trial in October 2007 was 'mere propaganda' and did not mean Siddique was about to commit a terrorist act.

Siddique"s father, also Mohammed Siddique, and mother, Parveen Siddique, arrived for the start of Tuesday"s hearing, together with solicitor Aamer Anwar, who said, 'Mohammed Siddique has asked me to state on his behalf that since April 2006 he has maintained his innocence.'

'It has been three long and hard years for him and his family. However he is still full of hope and believes in justice.'

Appeal judges Lord Osborne, sitting with Lords Reed and Clarke, heard that Siddique was arrested at Glasgow Airport as he waited to board a plane to Lahore with his uncle, intending to spend some time on his uncle"s farm in Pakistan.

Material found on his lap-top computer, and from a later search of his home, was shown to the jury. It included religious texts from the Koran, messages from al-Quaida and praise for "martyrs" in Iraq.

Mr Findlay told the appeal court, 'It is a hotch-potch, a melange of a whole variety of matters which is, in my submission, of no practical purpose whatsoever to any terrorist.'

Propaganda, even for causes which most people would find distasteful, was not an offence under the Terrorism Acts, said Mr Findlay.

The lawyer also admitted that Siddique 'had an intention, an aspiration to be a suicide bomber. I am not running away from that'.

But, he claimed, the Terrorism Act demanded the commission, preparation or instigation of a definite, particular act before a conviction was possible.

The court heard that some of the material was more sinister - including a "training manual" from al-Quaida"s military experts which included tips on fitness, shooting, hiding explosives, tactics and advice on resisting interrogation.

Mr Findlay maintained that it was all readily available, no pass-words were needed to access the websites involved and there was no need to 'knock three times to see who is there'. Much of it came from an anti-terrorist website.

'It is nothing new, it is nothing novel,' said the lawyer. 'The irony, or course, is that while it is the manual of al-Quaida"s military committee, it is being made available to all and sundry by a former Israeli secret service agent.'

Siddique was entitled to take an interest in such affairs, said Mr Findlay, but that didn"t make him a terrorist.

The trial in Glasgow in October 2007 heard that Siddique told fellow students that he sympathised with al-Quaida, wanted to become a suicide bomber and that his target would be central Glasgow.

He also shocked classmates at the city"s Metropolitan College with horror pictures of terrorist beheadings.

Computer whizz-kid Siddique also set up websites urging others to commit terror acts and showing how to make and use explosives.

Much of the chilling propaganda was aimed at English speakers.

His activities were halted by a police dawn raid on the Siddique family home in Myretoungate, Alva, on 13 April 2006.

Siddique was found guilty of three breaches of the Terrorism Acts and a breach of the peace. The offences were said to have been committed between March 2003 and the day of the raid.

He has always claimed that material came from websites which could be accessed by anyone and that his only motive was curiosity.

Siddique, in trying to overturn the convictions, is claiming that trial judge Lord Carloway misdirected the jury.

His legal team are expected to argue that the judge failed to explain properly that to be guilty, Siddique had to intend to use material in his possession to commit or prepare for an act of terrorism. There is a legal difference between propaganda and material directly connected to intended acts of terrorism which was not made clear, they claim.

Lord Carloway was also criticised, in the grounds of appeal, for inviting jurors to speculate about the extent to which a young Scottish Muslim would be interested in Middle Eastern affairs.

Evidence of a key witness, terrorism expert Evan Kholman, is also attacked.

Siddique"s legal team will also argue that Lord Carloway did not fairly explain to the jury that the 2000 Terrorism Act gives an accused a chance to put forward a 'reasonable excuse' for possessing material allegedly linked to terrorism.

The hearing is expected to continue the rest of this week with the judges giving a written ruling at a later date.