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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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19 August 2008

PRESS RELEASE: UK –IHRC response to recent conviction and sentencing of three men guilty of possessing or making documents connected with terrorism.

IHRC is troubled by the recent conviction and sentencing of Aabid Khan, Sultan Muhammed and Hammaad Munshi, who were found guilty of possessing or making documents promoting terrorism, possessing articles for a purpose connected with terrorism and making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism.

Despite both the investigating officers and the Crown Prosecution Service acknowledging that the men “may not have been actively planning acts of terrorism themselves”, disproportionately heavy sentences of 12 and 10 years imprisonment were handed down to Aabid Khan and Sultan Muhammed respectively respectively. Hammaad Munshi is yet to be sentenced.

IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh commented:

“We are deeply concerned and worried that misguided youth can be criminalised for downloading material widely available on the internet without any evidence presented, let alone proven, of a plot or intent to carry out an act of terrorism. It is prosecutions such as these that have led the UN Human Rights Committee to condemn Britain’s anti-terror laws twice in the space of two months.”

For more information please contact the Press Office on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958 607475 email info@ihrc.org.[ENDS]
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The Islamic Human Rights Commission is an NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183
Email: info@ihrc.org
Web: www.ihrc.org

IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations