Entitled to be a Radical? Counter-Terrorism and Travesty of Human Rights in the Case of Babar Ahmad
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13009158 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Scott Poynting (Queensland University of Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | State Crime Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2046-6056 • E-ISSN: 2046-6064 |
| Publisher | Pluto Journals (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.13169/statecrime.5.2.0204 |
| OpenAlex | W2562191431 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 1 |
This article asserts that the construction of the prevailing notion of “radicalisation” in pursuit of counter-terrorism under US-led hegemony sustains practices of “empire crime” that systematically undercut the rights of Muslim populations in countries such as the UK and the US. This argument is advanced through the case study of Babar Ahmad, who was detained without trial for eight years in the UK, before being sent, under a new and lopsided extradition treaty, to the US to face terrorism charges over his expression of support for the Taliban on his web pages in 2002. Mr Ahmad suffered torture and racist humiliation at the hands of the London Metropolitan Police (Met) after the raid in 2003 on his home by counter-terrorism officers, acting on advice from the US. Ahmad eventually won compensation for the “sustained and gratuitous violence” admitted by the Met. Nevertheless, he was held at Long Lartin high-security prison for eight years, and then extradited to the US where he spent four years on remand, under abusive conditions. The civil and political rights, as expressed in the international covenant of that name, were notably missing in the case of Mr Ahmad. His indictment in Connecticut was shown to be error-ridden and invalid. The judge whom he finally faced after a plea bargain was struck, described him as a “good person”, who had never been interested in terrorism
Criminology · Double jeopardy · Human rights · Indictment · International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights · International human rights law · Political science · Politics · Prison · Right to property · Sociology · Terrorism · Torture · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2018 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |