Scotland’s ‘freed’ terror-suspect claims being victim of racism.
Mohammed Atif Siddique was freed on Tuesday after serving four years of an eight-year terrorism sentence after his main conviction was quashed.
Siddique was jailed for “collecting terrorist-related information, setting up websites…and circulating inflammatory terrorist publications”, resulting in a sentence of eight years’ imprisonment.
….“I do regard myself as a victim of racism. Had a white person downloaded this stuff, there would have been no prosecution,” The Scotsman quoted Siddique, as saying.
He had already declared that he was a “numpty” rather than a terrorist and said he had accessed the websites, some of which are still available, out of boredom and curiosity rather than malice.
Siddique said that he always expected to be convicted.
“I didn’t think I was going to get not guilty. My trial came at a time when there was a lot of hostility – the Glasgow Airport attacks had just happened, my trial finished on the anniversary of 9/11,” he said.
