Spaniard a judge acquitted a 19-year-old today British of all the charges brought against him for one funny that he had made and shared on a private internet conversation with five friends of before boarding a flight in 2022, that as a member of the Taliban he will blow up the plane with a bombwhich resulted in a fighter jet taking off to escort the plane.
Aditya Verma, who was 18 at the time, shared a photo in a closed group online chat with six of his friends, with the message saying: “On my way to blow up a plane, I'm a member of the Taliban” before boarding a flight to the resort island of Minorca at London's Gatwick Airport, the young man told the court.
Indian-born Verma said the joke was made in the context of repeated comments in the private chat about his features and the color of his skin.
The message was somehow intercepted by British security services who alerted the Spanish Air Force, which in turn ordered the takeoff of a Eurofighter to escort the plane.
No explosives or weapons were found, but, as APE-MPE reports, Verma was arrested upon landing and spent the night in jail, police said at the time.
Maybe a friend of his alerted the police
Judge Jose Manuel Prieto ruled that the comments do not constitute a criminal offense as they were made in “a strictly private environment” and Verma could not suspect that the message was to be intercepted.
The trial did not make clear how British agencies managed to access Verma's private messages, the judge said. Judged that any of the other members involved in the conversation could have alerted the policeand if he did do that, then that other member should be blamed, not Verma.
Prosecutors had requested that Verma be fined 22,500 euros and pay 94,800 euros in compensation to the Spanish defense ministry for the cost of developing the fighter jet.
Source: News Beast
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