Society's Child

British Teen Arrested for Anti-War Comments on Facebook

Sky News
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:22 UTC

A teenager will appear in court after being arrested for allegedly making comments on Facebook about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan last week.

Azhar Ahmed, 19, is said to have posted the comments on his profile page and has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said Ahmed, of Fir Avenue, Ravensthorpe, was criticising the level of attention the British soldiers who died in a bomb blast received compared to Afghan civilians who have died in the war.

The spokesman said: "He didn't make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother."

Ahmed will appear at Dewsbury Magistrates Court on March 20.

He was arrested on Friday and charged over the weekend.

He has been bailed to an address outside the county.

The soldiers died when their Warrior vehicle was blown up

The soldiers were killed on March 6 in the deadliest single attack on British forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

Five of the men were aged between 19 and 21 and died when their Warrior armoured vehicle was blown up by a massive improvised explosive device (IED).

Sergeant Nigel Coupe, 33, of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment was killed alongside Corporal Jake Hartley, 20, Private Anthony Frampton, 20,

Private Christopher Kershaw, 19, Private Daniel Wade, 20, and Private Daniel Wilford, 21, all of 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment.

The deaths take the number of UK troops who have died since the Afghanistan campaign began in 2001 to 404.

Reader Comments

inverse · 2012-03-14T00:18:07Z

Reader

The spokesman said: "He didn't make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother."

So the police were aware that it was probably just bad wording and not intentional but still felt the need to arrest him!

Everyone should delete their Facebook accounts...

Laura · 2012-03-14T02:18:57Z

Well...

What exactly did he write?

lan8r · 2012-03-14T04:24:11Z

Really!

I've read this article several times and still can't find it! I thought, maybe I missed something...

It states that he 'didn't make his point very well', I can't even find his words, let alone his point.

And that has left me dubious of 'the point' of this article.

Oh, maybe it is... "The deaths take the number of UK troops who have died since the Afghanistan campaign began in 2001 to 404" (and this would be only the UK troops I guess, not to mention the the troops from other countries, and of course Afghanistan Men, Women and Children)

God Bless the Mothers who have lost their Children and their Husbands. I am truly sorry for your loss.

But wait, 2001? Are we still at war with Afghanistan? I thought we moved on to Iraq. But wait, didn't we withdraw our troops from Iraq?

Who Exactly, are We 'at war with'? And why are we all sacrificing our children and loved ones? 2001? That is like a decade ago. Where are we now? (and how did we get here?) and more importantly, WHO are we now?

Highland Fleet Lute · 2012-03-14T03:11:10Z

It's not quite clear to me why he's being charged with a racially aggravated public order offense, unless British squaddies are "a race", all of a sudden.

More on this here... [Link]

luci · 2012-03-14T03:36:52Z

big brother is watching you

and waiting to make a point of you.

System · 2012-03-14T03:57:51Z

It seems you Brits, don't have much of a 'freedom of speech', or do you?
When one goes to war, one should expect to die, just hate the fact that I
die while some sob corporation reaps profits as I spill my blood.

Highland Fleet Lute · 2012-03-14T04:40:19Z

Arrr, I hate the term "Brit". Frankly, I prefer "Limey".

Luke · 2012-03-14T06:04:34Z

Possible reasons why this teenager was arrested:

He is a muslim and his name will immediately identify him as a possible terrorist, at least to the publics mind.
He criticized the british armed forces especially those that died. As far as I am aware, freedom of speech in the UK is OK to some extent but you can't criticize the army. You can criticize the war but not the soldiers or military officials as they are seen as heroes.

What I want to know is how the authorities found out he wrote that stuff on his facebook page? Did the words he used trigger some software at big brother HQ or did one of his facebook friends report him?

mosaicvic · 2012-03-14T08:21:38Z

Facebook Entrapment

Facebook is entrapment. I hated the site because no one discussed anything worthy of thought. Oh, but Christians can promote their faith. Get off Facebook and start protesting this manipulative surveillance. What started off as a fun social affair has turned into a huge waste of time and space. Pettiness and maliciousness abound now on the site. I hope the IPO falls flat on it's face. I just tried to get on Pinterest but I can only sign up through Facebook. It is a consumer affair.

snakedyke · 2012-03-14T09:04:24Z

Appalling

You can now be prosecuted in the UK for bad grammar.

... and it seems that as a nation our money is wasted in training our police force to be malignant jobsworths instead of the well trained constables promised in the Magna Carta.

Constables pledged an oath upon appointment to keep the peace, and they break their oath whenever they abuse their authority like this. Somebody tell their children what their police parents are doing - how does one rub their noses in their shame ?

Mind you much worse is done, they also collude with breaking up decent families by stealing their children, this doesn't filter through to their jobsworths' ganglia (for others I would have used the word brain) as evil or even questionable.