Red Mercury terrorism trial results in aquittals
The BBC reports that the "Red Mercury " trial has resulted in the aquittal of all the defendants, on all the charges.
Trio cleared of red mercury plotThree men have been cleared of trying to procure a substance which police claimed could have made a "dirty bomb".
They were arrested in September 2004 after trying to buy "red mercury" from an undercover reporter.
But Roque Fernandes, 44, Abdurahman Kanyare, 53, both of Edgware, and Dominic Martins, 45, of Stanmore, had denied three terror-related charges.
They denied being interested in a radioactive or toxic substance and claimed they had been tricked.
The court heard how Mazher Mahmood, better known as the News of the World's "fake sheikh", played the part of a Muslim, called Mohammed, who claimed to have nearly a kilogram of red mercury which he was looking to sell.
[...]
The three men were acquitted of two charges of trying to set up funding or property for terrorism.
They were also found not guilty of one charge of conspiracy to possess "a highly dangerous mercury-based substance" for the purposes of terrorism.
We did have our doubts about this bit of "Climate of Fear" nonsense, involving the non-existance of a quantity of the mythical Red Mercury
This case should never have gone to trial in the first place.
Can there be better proof that the tabloid newspapers, in this case the News of the World, have undue influence with the Labour Government, especially the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service ? When are they goiing to stop insulting our intelligence with utter rubbish like this, or the ludicrous Osmium Tetroxide "threat" to the Tube, or the "No ricin" plot ?
The Goverment, who have ample scientific advice to hand if only they would bother to pay attention, should be actively debunking such misleading "climate of fear" stories, instead of allowing them to progress through the police and criminal prosecution systems. However, the NuLabour Government is failing the public in this duty.
Comments
More Chemical Shenanigans.....
Read "Chemical Delusions" a letter written to Peter Clarke, CVO QP LL on 16th March 2004, available here. Found this at Postman Patel.
Posted by: bob | July 26, 2006 12:38 PM
@ bob - our previous posting on this mythical Red Mercury nonsense also examined the likely applicability of the Anti-terrorism , Crime and Security Act 2001 Section 114 Hoaxes involving noxious substances or things to the News of the World's Mazher Mahmood
The Guardian mentions the name of the petty official at the Crown Proscution Service who appears to have sanctioned this ridiculous prosecution:
Surely the prosecuting barrister Mark Ellison deserves to have his legal colleagues keep reminding him of his utterly ridiculous, yet serious remarks:
Posted by: wtwu | July 26, 2006 2:08 PM
Ah, I see that Mark Ellison is involved.........
He has been used as a prosecuting barrister in a number of 'cases':
Katharine Gun - Iraq War Legality
* Sulayman Zainulabidin/Frank Etim - Jihadist Recruiter
* UK al-Quaeda Funding
* Andrew Rowe – Drug Dealer turned al-Qaeda terrorist
A study of these 3 cases (*) would shed some interesting results........
Posted by: bob | July 27, 2006 10:37 AM
This case seems extremely bizarre. I can't see much difference between what he said and:
"The Crown's position is that whether witchcraft does or does not exist is irrelevant."
Does this mean we can expect trial by ordeal in terrorist cases before long?
Posted by: Martin | July 27, 2006 11:17 AM