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Scottish student found guilty of terrorism offenses

A Scottish student who prosecutors claimed became an aspiring suicide bomber after scouring extremist Web sites faces 15 years in jail, a judge said on Monday.

Mohammed Atif Siddique, 21, was convicted at Glasgow's High Court of a string of terrorist offenses, including telling fellow students he planned to become a suicide bomber.

Prosecutors said he had been watched by security agents for several months before he was arrested in April last year as he attempted to board a flight from Glasgow to Lahore, Pakistan.

Siddique, from Clackmannanshire, in central Scotland, had stored and posted guides to bomb-making, guns and explosives on a network of Web sites, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyer Aamer Anwar had claimed Siddique had merely been conducting research into his religion and was the victim of heightened sensitivity in Scotland since a botched attack on Glasgow airport.

"This is not someone who is systematically carrying out research into Islamic politics," prosecutor Brian McConnachie told a four-week trial. "This is a wannabe suicide bomber."

He said video footage and information posted online by Siddique were "a call to arms for Muslims."

Anwar denied reports on Monday that Siddique had hoped to join an alleged planned terrorist plot in Canada.

Britain's Daily Telegraph reported security officials believed he had been recruited to a group planning to bomb targets in southern Ontario, including Canada's Parliament building.

Canadian authorities arrested a group of suspects in June alleged to have plotted the attacks.

In Scotland, Siddique was also accused of causing a disturbance at Glasgow's Metropolitan College, when he told onlookers he planned to become a suicide bomber, prosecutors said.

Officials said the student had no links to an attempt to attack Glasgow Airport on June 30, when a jeep loaded with gas canisters was rammed into the passenger terminal and burst into flames.

Police said the failed attack was linked to the discovery the previous day of two Mercedes cars packed with gas canisters in central London.

Siddique was found guilty of four offenses under British terrorism laws and a separate offense of breaching the peace, carried out between March 1, 2003, and April 13 last year.

"The court must take these offenses extremely seriously," said Judge Colin Carloway, warning Siddique he faced a maximum jail term of 15 years.

Anwar said he planned to appeal as the case had been "carried out in an atmosphere of hostility after the Glasgow Airport attack."
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