“A Halifax man with extreme Islamic beliefs has been jailed for four years. Rizwan Mahmood Ditta, 29, of Royd Terrace, Savile Park, supported the Taliban and the July 7 London bombings, a court heard. He admitted two offences under the Terrorism Act.

“Ditta, an English tutor for Asians in Halifax, would have been keen to take part in terrorist activity, said prosecutor Jonathan Sharp. Video footage found in his possession, showed military vehicles being blown up and audio messages encouraging terrorism.

“Ditta was arrested when counter-terrorism officers raided his Halifax home in January. He was charged with two counts of having data on a computer hard drive that contained information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.”

Halifax Courier, 18 December 2007

An accompanying editorial describes Ditta as having engaged in “a subtle type of terrorism” and observes: “Some may feel the sentence is lenient for a person described as supporting the Taliban and the London bombings on 7/7.”

Some, on the other hand, may note that Ditta didn’t actually engage in any form of terrorism at all, “subtle” or otherwise, nor did the prosecution present any evidence that he intended to do so. He was charged on the basis of downloading material from the internet.

As for the supposed “leniency” of the four-year prison sentence, some may wish to contrast that with the two-and-half-years that BNP member Robert Cottage received after being convicted of possessing explosives.