Accused pioneer of online radical Islamist propaganda freed
By Andrew V. Pestano Follow @AVPLive9 Contact the Author | July 19, 2015 at 11:27 AM
Babar Ahmad, considered by some U.S. and U.K. security officials as the pioneer of online radical Islamist propaganda, has returned home after spending more than 11 years in prison. Photo courtesy of FREEBABARAHMAD
LONDON, July 19 (UPI) -- Babar Ahmad, a British man jailed for about 11 years and considered the pioneer of online radical Islamist propaganda, has returned to his family in London after his release.
Ahmad launched a website in the U.K. in the late 1990s, later was hosted on U.S. servers in 2000, subjecting its content to American laws. He was first arrested in London in 2003 and then again in 2004 on an extradition warrant to the United States.
Ahmad fought an extradition campaign that lasted eight years.
He was finally extradited to the United States in 2012 and pleaded guilty in 2014 to providing material support to terrorism through his website, Azzam Publications. He was sentenced to 12 and a half years in jail, but time previously served was taken into account and he was freed last month.
"11 years of solitary confinement and isolation in ten different prisons has been an experience too profound to sum up in a few words here and now," Ahmad said in a statement published Sunday. "In October 2012, I was blindfolded, shackled and forcibly stripped naked when I was extradited to the U.S. Last week, U.S. and U.K. government officials treated me with courtesy and respect during my journey home."
Ahmad enlisted in the Bosnian Army 20 years ago to defend Muslim communities from genocide by Serbian forces during the collapse of Yugoslavia. He began distributing audiotapes that told stories of dead Muslims, whom he hailed as martyrs, which then led to the birth of his website.
The U.K. never criminally charged Ahmad, but he was accused by U.S. and U.K. officials of pioneering online radical Islamist propaganda.
Judge Janet Hall, who sentenced him in 2014, said she was convinced Ahmad did not support al-Qaida, did not plot to harm people and showed genuine remorse for setting up websites that promoted extremism and supported the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Yet Hall told Ahmad that "you can't walk away from the fact that what you were doing was enabling bin Laden to be protected in Afghanistan."
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