Wee County News Live! - Alva student was victim of legal injustice

Alva student was victim of legal injustice

by Scott McClymont

ANXIOUS WAIT: Mohammed Atif Siddique

AN Alva man who became the first person in Scotland to be jailed for terrorism charges has had his conviction quashed.

Now Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, faces an anxious wait until a hearing next week to decide if he will be released or face a retrial after appeal judges ruled he was the victim of a “miscarriage of justice”.

The student, branded a “would-be suicide bomber”, was jailed under the Terrorism Act in 2007 after a high-profile trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Last week one of the appeal judges, Lord Osbourne, said some directions given to the jury by the trial judge, Lord Carloway, when explaining the main Terrorist Act provisions faced by Siddique, had been a “material misdirection”.

Siddique was arrested at Glasgow airport in April 2006 as he was about to board a flight to Lahore in Pakistan after being under surveillance of security services for months.

His family have always maintained his innocence and claimed the family were victimised by the authorities for being Muslim.

The well-known family, who own A and N Bros newsagents in the Myrtoungate area of the town, found themselves at the forefront of a national media furore as police stormed their house and arrested several members of the family.

Speaking to the Wee County News at the time of the arrest, Mr Siddique jnr said: “We condemn terrorism, we don’t like these things.

“People have been offering support, hugging us in the shop and we’ve been touched by the reaction for the community. We’ve been here 25 years and the whole county is my family.”

Siddique remains in custody pending next week’s hearing. He did not appeal against the least serious charges, for which he has effectively served his sentence.

Comments (2)

	05-02-2010 14:40
	You say "He did not appeal against the least serious charges" - but not that he has always maintained his innocence. Also, I hope somebody has the questions poised to aim and fire at Central Scotland Police, who spent millions of taxpayers' pounds bringing this case to court. He's a harmless lad with a curious mind. Get on his side before some paranoid copper stamps on your freedom of speech too.

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	10-02-2010 11:16
	Actually, Central Scotland Police didn't spend millions of pounds bringing the case to court - the Crown Office did. All police organisations do is act on crimes, pass on the info and then it's for the fiscal or crown to pursue. And in this case they did. But, in this case the judge got his summing up wrong. I agree the Atif Siddique appears to be the victim of a suspect piece of legislation and I am pleased that he's been released. It's a law which leaves it open to many to find themselves under terror arrest. Even Iceland - a country - was subject to our "brilliant" terror legislation over the credit crisis - because of bank account money from the public and public organisations. It just reinforces that our terror legislation is wrong.

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