Law Student Found Guilty of Posting Extremist Videos on YouTube
A man who created extremist videos and uploaded them onto YouTube has been convicted of terrorist offenses following an investigation by London’s counterterrorism division.
In addition to posting extremist videos on YouTube, Mohammed Gul, 23, made a compilation video on his laptop by editing footage of attacks on coalition soldiers together with logos of terrorist groups and extremist commentary. Gul then used the family computer to put the clip on the web before posting links to it in an online chat room, according to the London Metropolitan Police.
Gul was a law student at Queen Mary University in London in February 2009, when he was arrested, The Independent reported. Searching his home, police seized two computers and storage devices containing the extremist material, the Met said.
“The videos posted on the Internet by Gul were inflammatory and clearly had the potential to incite terrorism,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, senior national coordinator of counterterrorism, said in a release. “The clips graphically showed acts of terrorism and the logos of known terrorist groups. This is one of the first successful prosecutions relating to disseminating terrorist publications via the Internet and shows our commitment to tackling those who support and encourage terrorism whatever means they use.”
Despite telling the jury he did not support terrorism but instead acted through curiosity and his political beliefs, Gul was found guilty of five counts of dissemination of terrorist publications, according to The Independent.
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