Trial Of Aberdeen Student Charged With Terrorism Offences Continues
A POLICE officer today told a terrorism trial that he did not know that the videos and documents seized from a hard drive found in the flat of Aberdeen medical student Yousif Badri were all freely available on the internet.
Detective Constable Mark White, who is a member of the counter terrorism team based in Aberdeen, was giving evidence for a third day in the trial of 29-year-old Badri who denies three terrorism charges.
Badri's flat was searched by a specialist police team on June 6, 2013, and a number of documents were found on an external hard drive in one of the bedrooms.
The jury has seen the videos which include footage of military vehicles being blown up and soldiers being shot.
They have also been shown documents, including an Al Qaeda training manual.
Defence QC Murdo Macleod asked DC White: "You have been asked about these videos and documents. Do you know they were all freely available on the internet," and the police officer replied: "No, I didn't."
He was then asked if he had viewed all the videos and documents from beginning to end and replied: "No."
Mr Macleod asked: "Were you given information about Islamic culture and faith," and DC White said: "No."
The court was told that although there is a lot of Arabic in the documents found, the police did not get it all translated.
The QC then asked DC White: "Do you agree that in the videos and documents there is a lot of reference to religion and politics, : and he replied: "Yes."
Mr Macleod then said: "If you were an intelligent young man interested in how these, in many cases, atrocities , were committed that would be a place of interest," and DC White replied: "Yes."
The QC told the jury one way to look at the evidence would be to examine Badri's life and his interests.
Mr Macleod said: "Were you aware there were thousands of photographs of Mr Badri with friends and family at holidays in this case," and the police officer said: "Yes."
The QC said another way of looking at things would be to see if Badri was planning for the future.
He added: "If applications were found in a room you might conclude that is something they were thinking of," and DC White replied: Yes."
Badri faces a number of allegations including an accusation he was involved in conduct "with the intention of committing acts of terrorism".
The offences are said to have been carried out at two places in Aberdeen -Badri's former flat in Ashgrove Road and in Berryden Retail Park.
Prosecutors claim that between 2007 and 2013 Badri collected or made a record of information likely to be useful to a person "committing or preparing an act of terrorism".
This allegedly included footage of terror attacks as well as instructions on "urban assassinations" and "guerrilla tactics".
The second charge alleges that Badri "with the intention of committing acts of terrorism" engaged in various actions between 2006 and 2013.
Accusations listed in the indictment include a claim he had an "equipment list" for attending a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
He is also said to have possessed "advice for those involved in conducting terrorist attack planning operations".
The charge further states that he had documents, recordings and files containing "extreme ideology".
The final accusation claims that on April 16 last year Badri posted on Twitter the phrase: "Whoever feels safe from punishment, misbehaves".
The comment is said to have come from a copy of the Inspire magazine - described as being published by the "propaganda wing" of Al-Qaeda.
Badri denies all the charges against him.
The trial before judge Lord Turnbull continues.