Introduction
It is a curious case. Amar Hussain, a serving police is starting a seven year sentence for what sounds like it could be the plot of a cheap thriller.
Factual Background
On 8th December 2014 a 999 call was made to the West Midlands Police saying that an officer was going to get kidnapped by one or more radical muslims with links to ISIS.
One person (at least) was named as being the potential perpetrator. That person was arrested under the terrorism legislation, and detained for two days before being released, and eventually cleared.
The threat had been taken very seriously, with a variety of security measures put in place.
Voice analysis of the call lead the police to two people – Adil Bashir, 26, and Muhammad Ali Sheikh, 31. Behind this was the orchestrator of the false plot – Amar Tasaddiq Hussain, a 29 year old police officer (it’s not clear how the link was made).
They were charged with perverting the course of justice. All three denied the charge(s – there were two counts of perverting), but were both convicted at Stafford Crown Court.
Sentence
This was clearly a serious matter. Not only did it have a widespread impact on the public, it must have been horrific for the man who was arrested under the terrorism legislation and spent several days in the police station staring down the barrel of a life sentence for organising the murder of a police officer.
The reason for this seems to have been a personal grudge by (soon to be ex) PC Hussain, which is barely a reason at all.
Mr Hussain got 7 years with the other two, who the Judge said were a lot less involved, getting 3 years each.
As we have noted before, the Courts take Perverting the course of justice very seriously, especially when it is committed by someone who is involved in the criminal justice system. For that reason, although the sentence is a very steep one, we doubt it would be successfully appealed.
Likewise for the other two. Again, three years is a big sentence, but in the circumstances, although there may well be an appeal, we doubt they will get very far.