Arrested CERN Physicist Gets 5 Years For Terror Plot

An anonymous reader sends this followup to news we discussed in 2009 of a CERN physicist who was arrested for allegedly being in contact with al-Qaeda. The physicist, Adlene Hicheur, has now been sentenced to five years in prison. "He came under suspicion when threatening messages were sent to President Sarkozy in early 2008. The security services uncovered a series of email exchanges between Hicheur and an alleged al-Qaeda member called Mustapha Debchi. After his arrest in 2009 police found a large quantity of Islamist literature at his parents' home. At the start of his trial the 35-year-old scientist admitted that he had been going through a psychologically 'turbulent' time in his life when he wrote the emails. He had suffered a serious back injury, for which he had been taking morphine. But he always denied he intended to carry out any attacks."

Comments

didn't actually intend?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, that's OK then, let him go.

Thought Crime

[flyingfsck]

As far as I can tell this guy did not actually do anything. He got 5 years for a thought crime.

Re:Thought Crime

[TheRaven64]

With terrorists, it's not such a good idea to wait until they've actually committed the physical crime. That tends to cost a lot of lives.

There are steps in between thinking about something and doing it. For example, I could write a description of the orbital corrections required how to fly an asteroid into London during the Olympics. I could hate the Olympics enough to want to do it. Unfortunately, since I lack a space program, I can't actually do it. Arresting me for doing it would make no sense. On the other hand, if I'm threatening to set off a car bomb and I'm sitting at home with a van full of fertiliser and home-made detonators, the security services would be negligent if I were allowed to go for a drive.

Re:Thought Crime

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes,

And we have Christian terrorists in this country who actually carry out acts of terror-- bombing family planning clinics, murdering doctors, kidnapping family members of doctors, blowing up federal buildings killing hundreds. etc., but when it is a Christian, it is a lone actor, not Christian terrorists. I bet every one of the Christian terrorists had "Christian literature" in their homes as well.

If we are going to go after Muslims, we need to go after Christians and Jews, etc. using he same standard, or we cannot call ourselves a nation of laws.

"intent" is the concept in question here

[circletimessquare]

if you threaten mayhem, it is a not a "thought crime" to catch you and punish you on that basis

if you threaten mayhem it is a statement of intent, for which you can, and should, be punished

for example, if i were to threaten the life of the president, i would get a visit from the secret service, and i should get such a visit, and i should be punished

if i call my girlfriend and tell her i am going to kill her, she should call the police, and the police should visit me, and they should visit me, and i should be punished

this is not rocket science here folks. if you make a statement of intent to do bodily harm, it is going to be taken seriously, and it should be taken seriously

now mod me troll and go back to being flabbergasted at a simple commonplace and normal legal convention

Missed opportunity for DCRI/DGSE

[FatLittleMonkey]

What ever happened to old fashioned spycraft? You know who he is, put him under surveillance, monitor his emails/phone/travel/visitors, he's in contact with al Qaeda, let him run with it. If he is directed to meet any local AQ contacts, bam, new surveillance targets. If he organises an actual attack, you intercept and now you have him and possibly a whole local cell, and not just for writing a few stupid emails. Hell, if nothing happens, then arrest him, wave terrorism charges at him, but only to turn him and send him out to work for you; give him a better story to lure out AQ, say he has access to radioactive material for a dirty bomb, but needs explosives and a bomb maker...

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

What constitutes a "large quantity" of Islamist literature? When Christians get arrested do the articles talk about large quantities of Christian literature being found in their homes? What a horrible article.

Re:Hmm

[Roachie]

Yes.

Next question.