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Here's a quick summary of a very interesting day at Birmingham Crown Court.
Josh Walker, who fought against ISIS in Syria, is accused of a Terrorism Act offence for downloading the "Anarchist Cookbook" at university.
Walker was charged after he returned from Syria & police searched his flat & found a partial copy of the book. theintercept.com/2017/07/10/jos…
There is no claim he was plotting a terrorist act. The issue in the case is whether possession of the book alone is a Terrorism Act offence.
If convicted he could face up to 10 years imprisonment.
The Walker trial continued this morning w/ evidence from three former @AberUni undergrad students & two police officers.
The students all participated in a "crisis game" in May 2015, which involved role playing a terrorists vs security services scenario.
Students in the group were studying politics, intelligence & security issues & used the games to learn about decision making in crises.
For the purpose of the game, the court heard, Walker downloaded a copy of the "Anarchist Cookbook" from the university library.
One witness, student Sam Smales, said the idea was to use the "Cookbook" as a reference doc for the group who were role playing terrorists.
After the game the students planned to burn documents they used, as following a previous game a cleaner found one & police were called in.
The cleaner had apparently been alarmed at the doc's content, thinking it was about a real terror plot & not realising it was from a game.
To avoid a similar situation arising again, the students this time planned to burn the docs during a party at a beach after the game.
But Walker forgot to take the "Cookbook" to the beach to burn it, he told police after they found it in his apartment.
Police searched his apartment after he returned from Syria, the court heard, where he'd fought against ISIS with the Kurdish-led YPG.
