Dear LL.M.-guide members

Please find below an e.mail from Dr. Alf Gunvald Nilsen, RCUK Fellow, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham.

"Dear Friends Im writing to call your attention to a recent incident at the University of Nottingham, where a one of our Graduate Students at the School of Politics and International Relations and an administrative member of staff at the Department of Engineering were arrested by armed police under the Terrorism Act of 2000. Their alleged crime was that the graduate student had downloaded an Al-Qaeda training manual from a US government website for research purposes, as hes writing his MA dissertation on Islamic extremism and international terrorist networks. He had then sent this to his friend in the Department of Engineering for printing. The printed material had been spotted by other staff and reported to the University authorities who passed on the information to the police. The two were then arrested by armed police on May 14 and held for six days without charge, before being released without charge on May 20. During the six days they were imprisoned, the men had their homes raided and their families harassed by the police. It is worth noticing that in talking to one of my colleagues, a police officer remarked that the incident would never have occurred if the persons involved had been blonde, Swedish PhD students (the two men were of British-Pakistani and Algerian backgrounds respectively). The incident was recently reported in the Times Higher Education Supplement online:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=402125&c=2

Needless to say, this raises hugely important issues both about academic freedom and civil liberties. Obviously, there is the issue that for those of us involved in research on contentious issues we will by necessity have to consult primary materials of a controversial nature, and the fact that the material is controversial should not lead to it being deemed as illegitimate research material. Moreover, we should not under any circumstances have to fear for infringements upon our civil liberties as a consequence of doing our jobs. Moreover, it goes without saying that the university should guarantee the academic freedom, freedom of speech and expression, and civil liberties of all members of staff and students, irrespective of ethnic and religious background or political beliefs! I would be most grateful if you could circulate this e-mail as widely as possible in the interest of raising awareness and attention about this incident and the wider issues of academic freedom that it gives rise to, to as many of your friends and colleagues as possible! I would of course also be very grateful if any of you would be willing to write to the University of Nottingham to express your concern about this issue. If you are willing to do so, please contact me as soon as possible.

Regards
Alf

Dr. Alf Gunvald Nilsen
RCUK Fellow, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice,
School of Politics and International Relations,
University of Nottingham
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cssgj/index.php
University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, England, UK
Mobile: (0044) (0) 7973332219 Office: (0044) (0) 1159514032"

Update:Hicham Yezza now faces deportation.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/05/399451.html

Yours respectfully, Concerned Student

Bomb the Pentagon.

So if I get this right, the author wants immunity for students and staff, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the 7/7 bombers a recent graduate 'student'? Granting immunity from criminal sanctions to academics opens the door to lawlessness and I am quite certain a sharp increase in UCAS applications!

Dear Brett,

I can understand your concerns. However I would like to stress the particulars of this tragic event. The Masters student in question had downloaded an U.S. government edited Al-Qaeda manual for research purposes. This is what the 'alleged' crime was.

Second, rather than contacting the Masters students academic advisor to ask about the 'legitimacy' of such research materials (although I'm reserving my own judgment over whether any such assessment ought to be made at all), the university staff immediately contacted the police.

Thirdly, the police took six days to confirm that this material was indeed downloaded from a U.S. government website before letting the arrested young men go without charge.

But most importantly the issue isn't about 'immunity' from criminal sanctions, but addressing the frivolous nature of those 'criminal sanctions' in themselves. If doing academic research will be deemed criminal - or to put in other words, if the Human Rights that are guaranteed to members of society may be compromised on such loose grounds, what does this say about the nature of those rights? Are human rights really only the rights of the "egoistic man, of the man who is separated from other men and from the community", and as such doesn't the term 'human' in human rights not refer to "man as citizen but man as bourgeois who is taken to be the real and the true human being." Here it could be even widened to show, that 'human' really means anything but the immigrant-backgrounded pol.sci. Masters student, or anyone else as determined by Nottingham Uni. and the British Police.

What does this then say about the state of affairs we live in - democracy as a police-state? Please.

yours respectfully,

Concerned Student