Mohammed Atif Siddique is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

prisoner who was found guilty, but later cleared on appeal, of one of his convictions "collecting terrorist-related information, setting up websites...and circulating inflammatory terrorist publications", resulting in a sentence of eight years' imprisonment. His defence has consistently been that he was a curious 20-year-old youth, still living with his parents, who was "looking for answers on the internet". One of his convictions was quashed on appeal on the 29th of January, 2010. He remains a convicted terrorist. BBC programme maker Peter Taylor reported in his acclaimed three part series "Generation Jihad" that Siddique was linked to extremist Abid Khan, who was later imprisoned for Terrorist offences also. Siddique's parents, of South Asian descent, run a general store in Alva, Clackmannanshire which their son believed should stop serving alcohol as an off-licence.Elias, Richard The Scotsman, "A Polite Student from a Quiet Scottish Town?" Arguments with his parents led to his running away from home once, before returning. Siddique attended Alva Academy where he was a "model student", before enrolling as a Computing Technician student at

Glasgow Metropolitan College :''Merged into the City of Glasgow College in 2010'' Glasgow Metropolitan College was a further education college located in Glasgow, Scotland. The College was created on 7 February 2005 by the merger of the Glasgow College of Building & Printin ...

Arrests

On April 12, 2006, Siddique was accompanying his 40-year-old paternal uncle Mohammed Rafiq on a trip to his farm in the Punjab region, when officials at Glasgow International Airport informed the pair that they would not be allowed to fly. The laptop computer that Siddique was carrying was confiscated, and agents DC Murray and Leigh Graham opened the computers files, against police protocol. His

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

was also seized, after a photograph of Islamic protestors of the

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons The ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy (or Muhammad cartoons crisis, da, Muhammedkrisen) began after the Danish newspaper ''Jyllands-Posten'' published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005, most of which depicted Muhamma ...

was discovered. It was alleged he was flying to meet

Aabid Khan Aabid Khan is a British man from Bradford, EnglandSwann, Steve. BBCAabid Khan and his global jihad August 18, 2008 who was convicted in August 2008 of being a "terrorist propagandist". Life Khan worked at the ''At Tibyan'' website, run by Youn ...

, a friend of one of the

Toronto 18 Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor ...

, and thus may have been plotting to involve himself with the group.Cramb, Auslan.

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

Glasgow student 'planned to join Canada plot'
18 September 2007 Swann, Steve. BBC
Aabid Khan and his global jihad
August 18, 2008 At 7am the following morning, local police officers, MI5 and

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

stormed the Siddique house with a battering ram, arresting Siddique, his older brother Asif, their uncles Rafiq and Mohammed Niaz, 46 - the latter of whom was a 26-year resident of Stirlingshire. Sunday Mail
Student probed over postcards
April 30, 2006. The uncles were released from Govan police station after thirteen days imprisonment. Siddique was charged the next day unde
Section 58(1b)
of the Terrorism Act 2000, collecting information that would "likely be useful" to a terrorist. Asif, who was a 25-year-old law student, was released the day after Siddique's charges were laid, after he was questioned about his feelings towards the September 11th attacks after police found postcards sent from friends he maintained in New York City.

Trial

During the four-week trial under judge

Lord Carloway Colin John MacLean Sutherland, Lord Carloway (born 20 May 1954), is a Scottish advocate and judge who has served as the Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General since 2015. He was previously Lord Justice Clerk from 2012 t ...

, Siddique was accused of having shown photographs of suicide bombers to students at

, classmate Kyle Ramsey stated that Siddique had encouraged him to watch an online video of a beheading, and classmate Fozia Begum testified that he had claimed

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

was his god, and he was a member of

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

.Edwards, Mike
Terror trial hears Al-Qaeda praise claim
24 August 2007 He was also accused of carrying on email correspondence with a suspected militant identified only as "The Englishman" in court proceedings. The emails had been discovered after Canadian authorities requested Britain monitor a suspected militant recruiter living in Northern England. The advocate depute was Brian McConnachie, who characterized the material stating "It's clear from that material that the whole idea was to glorify martyrdom operations..." In June,

Evan Kohlmann Evan F. Kohlmann (born 1979) is an American terrorism consultant who has worked for the FBI and other governmental organizations.Central Scotland Police, and he submit an 18-page summary stating that the images, documents and videos that Siddique had downloaded comprised "a formidable archive of authentic Al-Qaida recruitment and technical material that is designed and likely to be used for purposes relating to the commission, perpetration, or instigation of an act of terrorism—most specifically, a suicide or 'martyrdom' operation". Forensic analyst Michael Dickson also argued that because the majority of files were kept in the c:\windows\options folder, it showed a clear intent to "hide" his interest. The trial concluded with nine hours of

deliberation Deliberation is a process of thoughtfully weighing options, usually prior to voting. Deliberation emphasizes the use of logic and reason as opposed to power-struggle, creativity, or dialogue. Group decisions are generally made after deliberation ...

by the jury of nine women and six men, resulting in a Guilty verdict on September 27, 2007.Man convicted of terror offences
/ref> After the conviction, Kohlmann said that Siddique "apparently lacked in the skills, sophistication, lengthy credentials, and cold-blooded professionalism" associated with actual terrorists and described him as "undoubtedly naive".CounterTerrorism Blog
After the trial ended, the prosecution alleged that it had been his intention to disappear once in Pakistan to join a Toronto-based group arrested on allegations of wanting to bomb Canadian targets, though his counsel pointed out that no evidence was ever produced to support the allegation, and referred to it as a "smear". Following the trial, Lord Carloway announced he intended to seek

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...

charges against Siddique's solicitor Aamer Anwar for making "disparaging remarks" about the outcome of the trial, referring to an "atmosphere of hostility". Siddique's leading counsel was

Donald Findlay Donald Russell Findlay KC (born 17 March 1951) is a Scottish advocate. He has also held positions as a vice-chairman of Rangers Football Club and twice Rector of the University of St Andrews. He is now chairman of his hometown football club Cowde ...

.Terror trial told procedures were not followed
, August 28, 2007.

Appeal

On the 29th of January, 2010, one of the charges against Siddique was overturned on appeal. The appeal judge, Lord Osborne, stated that some directions given to the jury by the trial judge, Lord Carloway, were a "material misdirection" and amounted to a "miscarriage of justice". The Crown Office issued a statement on 9 February 2010 indicating that it had decided not to seek a retrial of Mohammed Atif Siddique on terrorism charges following the Criminal Appeal Court's decision two weeks ago to quash a conviction under section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000, on the basis that the trial judge misdirected the jury as to the relevant law. The statement continues as follows: “The law in relation to section 57 of Terrorism Act 2000 has, since the trial judge charged the jury, further developed through a number of decisions in the English courts. “After careful consideration of the Appeal Court’s judgment, the Crown has decided not to seek authority for a retrial. The fact that Mr Siddique has already served the majority of his sentence for charge 1, and has de facto served his sentence in full for the other terrorist offences, of which he remains convicted, means that a retrial would have little practical effect. Accordingly, the Crown has concluded that a retrial would not be in the public interest. "Mohammed Atif Siddique remains convicted of the other charges on the indictment which were: * section 54 of the Terrorism Act 2000: setting up websites providing links to documents providing instructions on how to operate weaponry and make explosives * section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006: circulating terrorist publications by means of websites to encourage, induce or assist the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism) * breach of the peace: showing images of suicide bombers, murders and beheadings to fellow students, threatening to be a suicide bomber and to carry out terrorism in Glasgow or elsewhere."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siddique, Mohammed Atif Scottish people of Pakistani descent People convicted on terrorism charges Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Clackmannanshire Overturned convictions in Scotland