The Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis v Syed Talha Ahsan
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Cranston |
| Judgment Date | 07 August 2015 |
| Neutral Citation | [2015] EWHC 2354 (Admin) |
| Docket Number | Case No: CO/5160/2014 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 07 August 2015 |
[2015] EWHC 2354 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
The Honourable Mr Justice Cranston
Case No: CO/5160/2014
Mr Tom Little (instructed by the Metropolitan Police Legal Service) for the Claimant
Mr Daniel Squires (instructed by Birnberg Peirce & Partners) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 24/07/2015
Introduction:
This is an application by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis ("the Commissioner") for an order to impose notification requirements for a period of 15 years on Syed Talha Ahsan ("Mr Ahsan") under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 ("the 2008 Act"). In 2013, he was convicted in the United States of conspiracy to provide material assistance for terrorism through his involvement in a website. He has now returned to the United Kingdom. The notification order will require him for that period to attend police stations to provide, and update, information about his living arrangements and to provide details about his travel plans, for which permission can be refused. Breach of the requirements is punishable with imprisonment of up to 5 years.
Notification requirements have been imposed in many cases when persons have been convicted in the UK of terrorist-related offences. This is the first case in which a notification order has been contested in respect of a person convicted outside the UK of a corresponding foreign offence. The case raises a number of issues regarding the interpretation of the 2008 Act and the imposition of notification requirements in such cases.
Background
Mr Ahsan is a first generation British citizen. He is now aged 35. He obtained a first class degree in Arabic at SOAS, University of London. He then studied Arabic in Damascus before commencing a Masters in linguistics, which he did not complete. He has had different jobs ranging from telephone surveying, acting as a security guard, private tutoring, and working at human rights organisations. He is currently working for the family business. He has suffered from recognised psychiatric and psychological conditions, to which I return. He has been to Afghanistan twice. On both occasions he went to a training camp but not one associated with Al-Qaida. He became involved with Babar Ahmad who, between 1997 and 2002, had established and operated a group of websites known as the Azzam publications.
In December 2003, Babar Ahmad was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police. In July 2004 the Crown Prosecution Service informed him that no further action would be taken against him. Later that month, on 28 July 2004, the US federal District Court for the district Connecticut, issued a criminal complaint against Babar Ahmad and a warrant for his arrest. He was accused of maintaining azzam.com, which solicited funds for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The alleged offences had been committed in the UK, but azzam.com was at one time hosted in the US. In August 2004, Babar Ahmad was arrested on the US warrant and on 17 May 2005 Senior District Judge Workman held that he could be extradited.
Mr Ahsan was not arrested until the following year, 19 July 2006. It followed a request for extradition from the US in relation to the assistance he had provided to Babar Ahmad in connection with azzam.com. A considerable volume of material was found by the police at his home address. Five years later, the Crown Prosecution Service wrote on 22 November 2011 that the position differed between Babar Ahmad and Mr Ahsan.
"Whilst some material was submitted to the domestic prosecutor in respect of Babar Ahmad, none has ever been submitted in respect of Syed Ahsan. At no time has any part of the case against him been subject to consideration by a domestic prosecutor."
Both Mr Ahsan and Babar Ahmad remained in detention in the UK pending their extradition. There followed legal proceedings both domestically and in the European Court of Human Rights. Judicial review of the refusal by the Crown Prosecution Service to consider the question of prosecution of Mr Ahsan in the UK was refused: R (on the application of Ahsan) v. DPP [2008] EWHC 666 (Admin). In the course of his judgment, with which Swift J agreed, Richards LJ said:
"[36] Certain facts relevant to Ahsan's case were set out in Mr Coppel's skeleton argument but have subsequently been confirmed in a witness statement by Mr John Davis of the Treasury Solicitor, based on information received from the CPS. Mr Davis confirms that (1) the involvement of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command in relation to the allegations made against Ahsan by the US authorities has been restricted to providing information to the US authorities, and the Command has not conducted its own investigation of him for those matters; (2) no police investigation of Ahsan has been referred to or considered by the CPS; and (3) so far as the CPS is aware, no police investigation of Ahsan is in contemplation… There has been no relevant police investigation and no file has been passed to the CP…"
On 10 April 2012, the Strasbourg court dismissed the applications of Mr Ahsan and Babar Ahmad seeking to prevent their extradition: Application nos. 24027/07, 11949/08, 36742/08, 66911/09 and 67354/09. Mr Ahsan and Babar Ahmad were extradited to the US later that year. Mr Ahsan was detained by the US authorities from his arrival in the US in October 2012 until his return to the UK in August 2014. He spent a period of a year and a half in solitary confinement.
In December 2013, Mr Ahsan signed a plea agreement based on his involvement in assisting through azzam.com to provide support for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan between early 2001 and 1 September 2001. Specifically he admitted the following acts:
"Mr Ahsan conspired to provide and assisted the provision of material support for terrorism in three ways through Azzam.com:
(1) by assisting Mr Ahmad, Mr Ahsan assisted the solicitation of and conspired to provide funds for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan;
(2) by assisting Mr Ahmad, Mr Ahsan assisted the solicitation of and conspired to provide personnel for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; and
(3) by assisting Mr Ahmad, Mr Ahsan assisted the solicitation of and conspired to provide physical items for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan."
During its existence, the website had sought to facilitate financial and other support for Muslims in the civil war in Bosnia and Chechens fighting in a civil war in Chechnya. The postings relating to Bosnia and Chechnya made up 98 percent of its content.
On 16 July 2014 Judge Janet C. Hall, Chief Judge of the US District Court for the District of Connecticut, sentenced both Babar Ahmad and Mr Ahsan. She considered that neither had an interest in operational terrorist activities but noted that Azzam Publications supported the Taliban, who in turn supported Al-Qaida, so that efforts to raise money and material for the Taliban therefore rendered them indirectly connected to Al-Qaida. She observed: "I can only draw the conclusion that… neither of these two defendants were interested in what is commonly known as terrorism." After considering Babar Ahmad's case at length, she sentenced him in total to 150 months in prison.
The judge turned to Mr Ahsan. She described his role as being that of a "mail clerk" dealing with what was in the website's mailbox. She said that he had a nonviolent outlook on life and that his view had not been that of a terrorist who might wish to blow up innocent people or attack a target of US military might. He had never intended to be a part of what she called the "false Jihad of terrorism". She said that he did not support 9/11 or the London Underground bombings. His support of Azzam Publications, given what it was doing in 2001 vis-à-vis the Taliban, was serious, but his involvement was limited. Whereas Babar Ahmad continued involvement after 9/11, Mr Ahsan did not. Mr Ahsan had been a model prisoner. The judge said that:
"[T]here is no sign that Mr. Ahsan's view of what is Jihad in an Islamic sense should be equated with terrorism. There is no evidence that he adopted beliefs of people who believe in terrorism, attacks on civilians. In fact, his own writings speak out against the attacks on the civilians in the tubes in London. He disagreed with 9–11. He felt that was wrong. He's rejected the views of Al-Qaida"
She added:
"[At the time of his arrest, he] had material of all kinds of views. And I would say that certainly in the months going up to the time of his arrest, to the extent they are reflected in his personal, private journal, they indicate a man who is interested in his poetry and writing poetry, who is a moderate person who has peaceful views… In all, you appear and strike me as a man who is sensitive and curious, intelligent and talented… [T]here are many letters in support of you [which] speak about you and your character as one which is 'not violent and not aligned with the views of people who are violent."
The judge did not think that Mr Ahsan would "recidivate" but was worried that with his depression things might look different. "But I don't see that as a reason to conclude that you will recidivate, particularly if you access appropriate treatment and support." The judge concluded her sentencing remarks as follows:
"You were very young at the time [of the offences]. And in my view, your culpability is low…. you never intended to, never planned to, never wanted to be involved in what I call invalid or terroristic Jihad…...
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