[Twosugars]

Study shows disparity in sentencing for similar online offences

Islamist offenders convicted of online extremist crimes received prison sentences three times longer than those of their far-right counterparts, according to new analysis.

Researchers found that Islamists received on average 73.4 months compared with 24.5 months for far-right offenders, despite the government’s ambition to treat both strains of extremism in the same way.

The study by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a foreign policy thinktank, said a primary reason for the disparity was a failure by the Home Office to proscribe far-right groups, making them harder to prosecute than their Islamist equivalents.

Although National Action became the first and only far-right group to be banned as a terrorist organisation in 2016, other organisations such as the neo-Nazi System Resistance Network, which advocates zero tolerance of non-white people, and of Jews and Muslims, has yet to be outlawed.

By contrast, it is illegal for a British citizen to be a member of at least eight Islamist organisatations, including Sunni militia group Ansar al-Sharia and the Islamic State.

“The lack of far-right groups subject to proscription in the UK, when compared to Islamist groups, has left the authorities reliant on hate-crime legislation rather than specific terrorist offences which carry heftier sentences,” said the report’s author Nikita Malik. She added: “The government needs to keep this situation under review in a fast-moving online world, where offending causes real and significant harm.”
More at https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020...ine-extremists

[Kizzy]

Not surprised whatsoever...That's the road we're driving down in the UK imo.

[Oliver_W]

"Similar online offences"

Unless there's a direct like-for-like with them getting different sentences, it's another case of different crimes getting different punishments.

The article didn't even say what these "online offences" even are? Buying weapons? Planning attacks? Calls to violent action?

[Elliot]

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

"Similar online offences"

Unless there's a direct like-for-like with them getting different sentences, it's another case of different crimes getting different punishments.

The article didn't even say what these "online offences" even are? Buying weapons? Planning attacks? Calls to violent action?

I imagine that the article is referring to insightment.

[Livia]

You can't compare two groups of criminals like this unless their crimes are identical. And first you'd have to believe that the far right in the UK are anything like as organised as the Islamists. The far right in the UK is dangerous... but stupid. They don't have one decent spokesperson so everyone who speaks for them sounds like an idiot. The Jo Cox murder was terrible... but her killer didn't represent any organisation in the killing because "organisation" would suggest they're organised, and they're not. So until the far right start putting bombs on the tube or targeting a concert where the audience is mostly teenagers, and they have the global network and the ideology of every country living under their particular style of caliphate, I'm always going to l regard them as the uneducated scum they are.

[parmnion]

I was watching something about belmarsh prison with ross kemp and they had a guy that ran off to fight against isis for 18 months, his fellow brit died during the time..he got a years jail time..

[Livia]

Originally Posted by parmnion

I was watching something about belmarsh prison with ross kemp and they had a guy that ran off to fight against isis for 18 months, his fellow brit died during the time..he got a years jail time..

Yes, and I can't see anyone weeping for him. I'm not 100% sure what happened to members of the International Brigade when they returned to the UK after the Spanish civil war, but I bet they weren't treated like terrorists.

[parmnion]

Originally Posted by Livia

Yes, and I can't see anyone weeping for him. I'm not 100% sure what happened to members of the International Brigade when they returned to the UK after the Spanish civil war, but I bet they weren't treated like terrorists.

Worth googling I suppose cause I'm sure I watched a documentary about that a few years ago...it must have stuck in my mind for something.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Livia

You can't compare two groups of criminals like this unless their crimes are identical. And first you'd have to believe that the far right in the UK are anything like as organised as the Islamists. The far right in the UK is dangerous... but stupid. They don't have one decent spokesperson so everyone who speaks for them sounds like an idiot. The Jo Cox murder was terrible... but her killer didn't represent any organisation in the killing because "organisation" would suggest they're organised, and they're not. So until the far right start putting bombs on the tube or targeting a concert where the audience is mostly teenagers, and they have the global network and the ideology of every country living under their particular style of caliphate, I'm always going to l regard them as the uneducated scum they are.

Listen I know as usual this is going to go down like a cup of cold sick but I'm calling baloney on this... Anyone can be referred to the PREVENT programme. Lone wolf or group, Islamist or right wing.

'Our Prevent work is intended to deal with all kinds of terrorist threats to the UK. The most significant of these threats is currently from terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq, and Al Qa’ida associated groups. But terrorists associated with the extreme right also pose a continued threat to our safety and security.'

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...land-and-wales