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Terror Arrest for Twitter Joke


A MAN has been arrested under the Terrorism Act for posting on Twitter that he would blow an airport "sky high" if his flight was delayed.

Paul Chambers, 26, was locked in a cell, had his laptop, iPhone and home computer confiscated and has been suspended from his job all because of the online joke.

He is thought to be the first person in the country to be arrested for comments made on Twitter.

He posted the message after snowfall threatened to delay his plans to travel from Doncaster's Robin Hood airport to Ireland on January 15.

Banned
He wrote: "Robin Hood airport is closed.

"You've got a week and a bit to get your s*** together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high."

Police were alerted and arrested Chambers. He was held under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of conspiring to create a bomb hoax and questioned for seven hours.

Chambers was eventually released on bail until February 11 pending further enquiries.

He has also been banned from Robin Hood airport for life.

He said: "My first thought on seeing the police was that perhaps a member of my family had been in an accident.

"Then they said I was being arrested under the Terrorism Act and produced a piece of paper. It was a print-out of my Twitter page. That was when it dawned on me.

"I had to explain Twitter to them in its entirety because they'd never heard of it. Then they asked all about my home life, and how work was going, and other personal things.

"The lead investigator kept asking, 'Do you understand why this is happening?' and saying, 'It is the world we live in'.

"I would never have thought, in a thousand years, that any of this would have happened because of a Twitter post.

"I'm the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine."

The civil libertarian Tessa Mayes, an expert on privacy law and free speech issues said: "Making jokes about terrorism is considered a thought crime and mistakenly seen as a real act of harm or intention to commit harm.

"The police's actions seem laughable and suggest desperation in their efforts to combat terrorism, yet they have serious repercussions for all of us. In a democracy, our right to say what we please to each other should be non-negotiable, even on Twitter."

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: "A male was arrested on 13 January for comments made on a social networking site. He has been bailed pending further investigations."
source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2813031/Terror-arrest-for-Twitter-joke.html

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