Research into Islamic terrorism led to police response
A masters student at the University of Nottingham who was arrested under the Terrorism Act under suspicion of possessing extremist material was studying terrorism for his dissertation, Times Higher Education can reveal.
Academics and students have expressed concerns about the police’s handling of the case, which saw police searching campus property.
Rizwaan Sabir, a 22-year-old who was studying in the politics department, was arrested along with a 30-year-old member of staff. Both were released without charge on 20 May after having been held in custody for six days.
Mr Sabir’s lawyer, Tayab Ali of McCormacks solicitors in London, told Times Higher Education that as preparation for a PhD on radical Islamic groups, Mr Sabir had downloaded an edited version of the al-Qaeda handbook from a US government website. It is understood that Mr Sabir sent the 1,500-page document to the staff member - who was subsequently arrested - because he had access to a printer. Mr Ali said: “The two members of the university were treated as though they were part of an al-Qaeda cell. They were detained for 48 hours, and a warrant for further detention was granted on the basis that the police had mobile phones and evidence taken from computers to justify this.”
The case highlights concerns that new anti-terrorism legislation allowing detention for 28 days without charge would lead to people’s being held for extended periods on the “flimsiest of evidence”, Mr Ali said.
“Why did it take so long for the police to reach the conclusions they did?” Mr Ali asked. “These are not unqualified police, they are the top counterterrorism command for the region. They should know the difference between a book that is useful for terrorism and one that is not.”
Academics at Nottingham have expressed deep concerns about the arrest’s implications for academic freedom. Bettina Rentz, a lecturer in international security and Mr Sabir’s personal tutor, said: “This case is very worrying. The student downloaded publicly accessible information and provoked this very harsh reaction. Nobody tried to speak to him or to his tutors before police were sent in. The whole push from the Government is on policy relevance of research, and in this case the student’s research could not be more policy relevant.”
Alf Nilsen, research fellow in law and social sciences, said: “What we’re seeing here is a blatant attack on academic freedom – people have been arrested for being in possession of legitimate research materials. How can we exercise our academic freedom if we are at risk of being arrested for possession of subversive material? This sets a very alarming precedent. Academic freedom on campus should be guaranteed for all staff and students regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds.”
Dr Nilsen added: “I perceive the current incident at Nottingham to be occurring in tandem with several other attempts by UK authorities to increase surveillance of the academy and, in particular, non-Western students and staff, and moreover as an episode that is symptomatic of a more general curtailment of civil liberties in UK society, which seems to particularly affect and victimise non-Western citizens.”
Students at Nottingham are circulating a petition asking for the university to guarantee that the freedom of academics and students will be protected. It asks the university to acknowledge its “disproportionate response” to the possession of legitimate research materials.
A spokesman for Nottingham confirmed that the police had been called after material was found on the computer used by a junior clerical member of staff. “There was no reasonable rationale for this person to have that information,” he said. “The police were called in on the basis of reasonable anxiety and concern. In response to that, the police made a connection with a student who, we understand, was impeding the investigation and arrested that person.”
He added that the edited version of the al-Qaeda handbook was “not legitimate research material” in the university’s view.
A Nottinghamshire police spokesman said the police had applied for a warrant to extend the detention. “The judge was satisfied with the evidence presented and granted the extension,” he said.
melanie.newman@tsleducation.com
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Readers' comments (49)
22 May 2008 5:14pm
This is a disturbing development for academic freedom.
More worrying is the university's response: "There was no reasonable rationale for this person to have that information" - he was doing an MA dissertation and intending to do a PhD on the subject. I cannot think of better rationale.
Instead of apologising for its role in a grave miscarriage of justice, it sounds like the university is attempting to justify what it has done.
Do the upper echelons of the university (i.e. businessmen) believe that they have the right to tell academics what constitutes as “legitimate research material”? I am of the opinion that they do not.
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22 May 2008 7:55pm
The University of Nottingham has acted several times over the past year to silence freedom of speech on the part of its students and academics. We need to be afraid that this is the thin end of the wedge in terms of telling us not only what we can say, but also what we can study.
If academics & students can't be trusted to read and evaluate vile materials without having the police called by their employer/educational provider, what chance does anyone have of being allowed to do it?
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22 May 2008 9:29pm
I am a student at Nottingham and the university community has been outraged over the past few days.
Most people seemed confused when the students were initially arrested, but now the facts have emerged it is clear the university acted in a grossly disproportionate fashion to one of their own student's research. Why didn't they contact his supervisor and lecturers before contacting police, to see if the material was relevant to his research? As a mixed race student, I'm really concerned that the university is keeping a close eye on ethnic minorities. I hope it's not the case, but their behaviour since the students were released without charge shows that they're standing by their atrocious behaviour. I hear a petition is going round and I fully intend to sign it.
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22 May 2008 11:08pm
If nothingham university should take that stand, then international students should do some consultations before shosing a school to study.
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23 May 2008 0:10am
It should also be noted that both of the people arrested are prominent in activist circles at the university and have been involved in peaceful protest action and publication in the past. It is widely viewed that these arrests were an attempt, instigated very deliberately by the university, to intimidate student activists.
Seems to me that it will and should only provoke anger from students and turn more of us against this profiteering institution that has made numerous attempts to limit our freedom of speech.
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23 May 2008 5:50am
I wholeheartedly agree with "concerned student", and as such a student myself I cannot fathom how any educated person can possibly condone this kind of draconian behavior by any institution, more especially one of higher education.
While wartime propaganda and information control is one thing whose morality is debatable, the idea that it could ever even possibly be right to restrict the academic study of even the most sensitive of ideologies and methods (and even more-so those of the current enemy) is quite clearly absurd. On the contrary, the government should give grants for such study.
Were it not a time of active war, laws such as the Terrorism Act and its like around the globe would be grounds for revolutions and impeachments all over. But because the so-called "civilized world" is clinging to the shreds of peacetime stability wherever it can, fear dominates all our domestic policies and those of us aware enough to see it are forced to watch our freedoms melt away like so much sludge on a rain-swept road.
I don't know if "the" end is near, but "an" end is most certainly being announced. Time will tell what exactly it is that is ended.
~Warren
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23 May 2008 11:36am
Hold on a second. Don't forget that the person whose arrest sparked this off was a clerical member of staff, not a student. Let me ask all these principled people a simple question.
If you find on the Departmental computer the Al Qaida terrorist manual, placed there apparently by a clerical member of staff, do you:
do nothing
talk to the member of staff and let him reassure you
call the police?
If you choose either of the two options and that member of staff then goes on to kill people using the information in the manual, are you still happy that you have chosen the right course of action? More importantly, unless you take the third option, you cannot be sure - since you are in no position to make a judgement - that the person is not a terrorist.
I appreciate that it is not a pleasant or nice thing to do, but I don't think you have much choice - legal or moral - other than call in the police.
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23 May 2008 12:06pm
I agree that there are real dangers that need to be taken seriously concerning terrorism but it seems that some simple inquiries within the university would have revealed that the material had come from a student who was legitimately downloading this information for research purposes, with it seems the knowledge of their supervisor/tutor. The actions of the university were disproportionate and the whole thing could have been avoided. The moral option is to act in a balanced way and try to ascertain some facts before calling in the police with all the consequences we have seen.
It was perhaps foolish for this student to involve an unrelated third party in their research who could look suspicious and perhaps some guidelines need to be developed for the university to deal with incidents like this and for those dealing with research issues that are so senstitive at this time. But there should not be restrictions on research, nor excessive reactions that fuel fear and divisions.
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23 May 2008 12:23pm
University response seriously shocks me. Instead of politely apologizing, they are suggesting that using publicly accesssible resource was suspicious? Please!
Shame that our university spokespeole have a head of their own which never looks at the situation from the students point of view. Neither does Students Union!
If things keep being handled ignorantly like this, everybody will be joining the protest groups next year.
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23 May 2008 12:25pm
Response to "Concerned Academic"
You say: "Don't forget that the person whose arrest sparked this off was a clerical member of staff, not a student". In the article we are told that the University :" confirmed that the police had been called after material was found on the computer used by a junior clerical member of staff". Therefore we can deduce from this that the information was discovered after the student had used the pc and the pc was later used by a staff member who panicked, I would say.
The three options that you outlined did not take account of a fourth option written elsewhere- that the students academic supervisor be contacted to see if the information accessed was known to be part of his research. We are told that the research material came from the US Government website, which I would imagine is hardly likely to reprint information that jeopardises security.
I don't remember my old professor, who was researching and lecturing on the subject of the IRA, ever being arrested or detained for questioning, or his students. But then, they were all white.
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