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.

Re:What a dick.

[Quiet_Desperation]

Or *use* CERN to destroy the false vacuum.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

He did confess to writing the threatening emails. that is considered a crime.

Re:Thought Crime

[slew]

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

Given this person is a theoretical physicist, perhaps thinking about, but not doing, is sufficient evidence of something? Just a thought ;^)

Re:Thought Crime

[Baloroth]

Hardly. Conspiracy and planning to commit a crime is a crime, for good reason. Do we wait for a murderer to shoot someone before we can arrest and charge him? No, and for good reason.

Thought-crime is quite different from actively communicating willingness to be part of an "active terror unit" (as TFA says).

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:What a dick.

[Samantha Wright]

Nice guess: "General director of the National Police Frederic Pechenard stated in November 2009 that Hicheur planned to attack a base of the National Defence in Annecy, which harbours the 27eme bataillon de chasseurs alpins, involved in Afghanistan." (Wikipedia.)

In short, it looks like he was a scientist who hated the government, not someone bent on destroying the accomplishments of western civilization.

Interestingly, the BBC article calls CERN "Cern" as though it were a person. To whom do we address our complaints?

Higgs Boson is great!

[MRe_nl]

And Standard Model is His prophet!

"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

Re:What a dick.

[Anonymous Coward]

Interestingly, the BBC article calls CERN "Cern" as though it were a person. To whom do we address our complaints?

To Bbc?

Re:What a dick.

[SomePgmr]

Maybe a battlestar pilot with a habit of rubbing-one-out on the hangar deck after a successful run against the toasters.

Re:Hmm

[Roachie]

Yes.

Next question.

Thought != Stated intentions.

[TapeCutter]

Issuing death threats in writing or over the phone is a crime in most places, when done in a manner that can be recorded a direct threat of violence ceases to be a thought crime and becomes a stated intention, (metaphorically, it's a declaration of war). OTHOH, 5yrs is way over the top for such a trivial offence against the peace the rest of us actively maintain, especially since he had time to act on his threats but chose not to. A weekend in the slammer would be more than enough to convince him he's not as 'smart' as he thinks he is.

I think more fair chunk of the violence in the world could be averted if someone steps in early and cools things down with a glimpse of the consequences (or a distractingly funny one liner), but 5yrs is stepping in with jackboots since it's longer than most people get for carrying out their verbal threats of violence.

In other words, there are no GoodGuys(TM) in TFA, it's not a matter of choosing who's right because neither side has a moral or ethical leg to stand on.