Britain: Oppose deportation of Hicham Yezza

Sabir is a politics student at the university planning to complete an MA on Islamic extremism and international terrorist networks. He was researching his dissertation on the American approach to Al Qaeda in Iraq. As part of his preparation, he downloaded, from a US government web site, a copy of an Al Qaeda training manual. The document is freely available on a number of web sites and can be purchased in book form at Amazon.com.

As the document was some 1,500 pages long, Sabir realised that he could not afford to print it himself. He then e-mailed the document to Yezza to ask if he was able to print it for him. Sometime after this, someone contacted the police stating that the manual had been seen on Yezzas computer.

The police arrived at the university and arrested both Rizawaan and Yezza and searched their homes. Their mobile phones and computers were seized and their family and friends interrogated.

Campus property was also searched, with uniformed police maintaining a presence at the main Trent building. Some students arriving on campus the following day were also searched. Musab Younis, an organiser of the campaign to defend Yezza, said that during the investigation, The police regularly attempted to collate information about student activism and peaceful campaigning. They asked numerous questions about the student peace magazine Ceasefire and other political student activities.

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