Terrorism & encryptionU.K. police charges man with terrorism over researching, using encryption

Samata Ullah, a 33-year old Briton, earlier this month was charged in a London court with six counts of terrorism, one of which related to researching and using encryption.

Ullah was charged under the Terrorism Act 2006.

The Metropolitan Police said that Ullah was charged with one count of providing instructions in the use of encryption to a person who was preparing an act of terrorism.

The BBC reports that a second charge relating to Ullah’s use of encryption cites a statute under British law, which criminalizes, in the name of combatting terrorism, actions which, on their own, are perfectly legal.

Thus, Ullah was charged with preparing to engage in an act of terrorism by “researching an encryption program, developing an encrypted version of his blog site and publishing the instructions around the use of program on his blog site.”

The BBC notes that Ullah was charged under the controversial Section 5 statute.

“Section 5 can criminalize acts that, on their own, would be completely legal — if prosecutors can show that the end purpose of those acts might be terrorism,” said Tayab Ali, a human rights lawyer, speaking to Vice News in 2014.

“Often intention is proven using things like internet search history,” Ali said. “It is often described as ‘thought crime,’ and it doesn’t apply in any other aspect of criminal law.”

Supporters of Ullah say that it appears that he had added encryption to his blog site, something other Web sites do to improve security and privacy. But since he was charged with five other counts – membership in a proscribed organization; terrorist training; preparation for terrorism; directing terrorism; and possession of terrorism-related materials – Ullah’s supporters argue that the police has “piled on” and threw the book at him on the issue of encryption as well.