A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer person - let's hope he's not the last.
ReplyDeleteWhat heartening news to hear of the natural justice that was meted out to Dhiren Barot whilst in prison. Who says that the British Penal system is not working? I don't like to see any human being suffer, however his suffering is mild compared to what he had planned for hundreds, if not thousands, of innocents. Mind you, it will be nothing to him if he is a strong believer. As surely he believes that all his rewards are due to him in the next life. I hope the 72 virgins earmarked for him are to his liking. Also as a muslim he will also believe that everything in life is preordained by Allah, so following this logic he was destined to be scalded by a fellow inmate at a British prison.
ReplyDeletePeter Clarke of the Met Police on the Dhiren Barot case:
ReplyDelete"By contrast, the case of Dhiren Barot later that year was one where we simply couldn't control the risk. The intelligence rightly told us that he was involved in attack planning, but we did not know how far advanced he was. We did not know whether he posed an imminent threat or not. Surveillance could not give us the answers we needed, and so the decision was made that we had to arrest him straightaway. It is no exaggeration to say that at the time of the arrest there was not one shred of admissible evidence against Barot. The arrest was perfectly lawful - there were more than sufficient grounds [these being?], but in terms of evidence to put before a court, there was nothing. There then began the race against time to retrieve evidence from the mass of computers and other IT equipment that we seized. It was only at the very end of the permitted period of detention that sufficient evidence was found to justify charges. I know that some in the media were sharpening their pencils, and that if we had been unable to bring charges in that case, there would have been a wave of criticism about the arrests. Barot himself of course eventually pleaded guilty last year and received a 40-year sentence."
Dhiren Barot was the man who British prosecutors believed did not have a full-time job after the age of 23, and that “someone or some organization was supporting him financially.” source P12.
Dhiren Barot was also issued with SEVEN passports in his own name & TWO passports in other names. (source)
Now just you try to get hold of seven passports.
There was no concrete evidence of any terrorist plot. Barot visted New York in 2001 (a surveillance/tourist video taken in April 2001 of the WTC's was shown in court.
He is now banged up for at least 30 years for his thoughcrime.
Facilitated? I'd say.