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Arrested CERN Physicist Gets 5 Years For Terror Plot

Posted by Soulskill on from the don't-want-them-getting-black-hole-technology dept.

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."

4 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Thought Crime by flyingfsck · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

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    1. Re:Thought Crime by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Informative

      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).

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      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    2. Re:Thought Crime by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

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  2. Re:Hmm by Roachie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes.

    Next question.

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