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Bristol,
UK, September 26, 2009 – Bristol student Hashi Omer has been cleared of
failing to tell police about an extremist Muslim's plans to blow up
Broadmead.
Outside Bristol Crown Court he was hugged and kissed by nearly 30
relatives and friends who had supported him throughout the nine-day
trial.
Omer, 19, said: "I'm very happy about this. I knew myself, and the
people around me knew, that I was innocent. Everyone knew.
"It has been a very difficult time for my family and I am very pleased
with the way they conducted themselves."
A jury at Bristol Crown Court unanimously found him not guilty of
failing to disclose information contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000,
The court had heard that Omer met Isa Ibrahim at Al-Baseera mosque in
Wade Street, St Jude's, around April 5 or 6 last year and had contact
with him until Ibrahim's arrest on April 17.
The prosecution claimed Omer was aware of Ibrahim's indoctrination into
Muslim extremism, and knew he was hatching a bomb plot, but did not
report him.
In July, Ibrahim, 20, of Comb Paddock, Westbury-on-Trym, was convicted
of explosives and terrorism charges and sent to prison for a minimum of
10 years.
Omer, 19, of Eldridge House, St Jude's, told the jury that he formed the
view that Ibrahim was "immature and childish" but not dangerous and saw
it as his duty to guide him to the right religious path.
He was interviewed over six days after he was arrested.
In summing up the case Judge Neil Butterfield told the jury that the
police had found nothing to suggest that Omer himself was radical in his
thinking or extremist in his views.
But he said the student was aware that Ibrahim held passionate extremist
views, he knew he agreed with bombing as a tactic and that he idolised
the 7/7 bombers.
He also knew that Ibrahim had been buying electrical components and had
seen a suicide vest in his flat.
The defense had argued that Omer, as a devout Muslim, would have spoken
up immediately had he really believed that Ibrahim was a terrorist.
They said he was only 18 at the time and older people who knew Ibrahim
didn't think he was a terrorist either.
The judge said: "As the defendant saw it, this was all talk, big talk
from a teenager whose primary interest in life was playing computer
games.
"He was all talk and no trousers."
After the case, Kayse Maxamed, editor of the Somali Voice newspaper in
Bristol, said a cloud had been hanging over the whole Somali community
in Bristol for the past few months.
He said: "People have been looking at us with suspicion in the street
but the majority of people understand that we not terrorists that we are
against terrorism.
"It was Somali people who alerted the police about Isa Ibrahim.
"We also want to thank the police whose job it is to protect our
security. There is no bad feeling against them. We understand they have
to do their job.
"Everyone feels very relieved - Eid has come early
Source: The Bristol Evening Post
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Bristol-student-cleared-terror-charge/article-1352771-detail/article.html
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