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R v Samina Malik aka "The Lyrical Terrorist" (Central Criminal Court)

John Burton secured the acquittal of Samina Malik, aka "The Lyrical Terrorist", on the charge of possessing an article for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism, under section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Crown's case was that Samina Malik, whilst a shop assistant at the Heathrow branch of WH Smiths, had written on the backs of till receipts such comments as, "the desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom ... the need to go increases second by second". She had also written notes on various weapons. She was arrested after an email, written by her, was discovered on the computer of a terrorism suspect. The Police discovered that she had a large number of files on her computer, these included; "The Terrorist's handbook", "The Mujahideen Poison Handbook", "How to Win Hand-to-hand fighting", various weapons manuals and "the Al-Qaeda Manual". She had also joined a web site forum describing herself as the "Lyrical Terrorist" and stating that she "loved jihad" and her interests included, "helping the Mujahedeen in every way I can". She had also written poetry entitled, "How to behead" and "The Living Martyrs". The Crown described her as, "a committed Islamic extremist who supports terrorism and terrorists. She had a library of material that she had collected for a terrorist purpose. That collection could be extremely useful to someone planning terrorist activity".

Samina Malik gave evidence over three days maintaining that she was neither a terrorist or an active supporter of terrorism. She stated that she had downloaded the various manuals as material to help with her poetry. She was convicted of the lesser offence of possessing a record which contained information that was likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Recorder of London described John's conduct of the case as showing "commendable efficiency".

For further information

• Muslim who wrote jihad poetry is spared prison - Times Online
• 'Lyrical Terrorist' found guilty - BBC News
• Poetic shop assistant guilty of building library of terror - Times Online

8 November 2007

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