The convictions of five young Muslim men jailed over the possession of extremist literature have been quashed by Britain's Appeal Court. Freeing the men, the Lord Chief Justice said there was no proof of terrorist intent. The lawyer for one said they had been jailed for a "thought crime".
The prosecution was a closely-watched test case of Britain's 2000 Terrorism Act. Critics of the Act say that it has been used as a blunt instrument to prosecute young Muslim men and students where there is no proof of genuine links to terrorism. Irfan Raja, Awaab Iqbal, Aitzaz Zafar, Usman Malik and Akbar Butt were jailed for between two and three years each for downloading and sharing extremist terrorism-related material. But the Court of Appeal said that while the men had downloaded such material, there was no evidence it was in relation to planning terrorist acts.
"It is a great thing to live in a country where the Lord Chief Justice takes the time from hearing important cases to see if a group of unknown students have been fairly convicted for reading the wrong kind of literature," Malik said in a statement to the press. "As I said when I was arrested, I do not, have not and will not support terrorism in any form against innocent people. Today's decision means no first year student can ever be prosecuted again under this Act for possessing extremist literature."
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