Interesting story in The Guardian

A student who was arrested and held for seven days after downloading the al-Qaida training manual as part of his university research into terrorist tactics has received £20,000 in compensation and an apology from the police for being stopped and searched.

Rizwaan Sabir, 26, was studying for a master’s at the University of Nottingham in 2008 when he was detained under the Terrorism Act and accused of downloading the material for illegal use. He was arrested on 14 May after the document was found on an administrator’s computer by a member of staff.

Note the small twist in the case — an administrator’s computer (rather than an academic one) was where the document was found — that fueled suspicion of non-academic use. So he spent seven days in jail plus three years of legal battle to exonerate himself. The police apologized but were not found at fault. It ended with a settlement before trial.

I guess you could say it was an unfortunate waste of the student’s time, except for the ironic detail that he has become a PhD student of counter-terrorism policy. Oh, and the University that turned their student over to the police for downloading the manual? They now keep copies of the manual in their library.