Arrested CERN Physicist Gets 5 Years For Terror Plot

An anonymous reader sends this followup to news we discussed in 2009 of a CERN physicist who was arrested for allegedly being in contact with al-Qaeda. The physicist, Adlene Hicheur, has now been sentenced to five years in prison. "He came under suspicion when threatening messages were sent to President Sarkozy in early 2008. The security services uncovered a series of email exchanges between Hicheur and an alleged al-Qaeda member called Mustapha Debchi. After his arrest in 2009 police found a large quantity of Islamist literature at his parents' home. At the start of his trial the 35-year-old scientist admitted that he had been going through a psychologically 'turbulent' time in his life when he wrote the emails. He had suffered a serious back injury, for which he had been taking morphine. But he always denied he intended to carry out any attacks."

Re:What a dick.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a fracking wanker? Is that like, someone who jerks off to the extraction of shale oil?

Re:What a dick.

[Quiet_Desperation]

Or *use* CERN to destroy the false vacuum.

Higgs Boson is great!

[MRe_nl]

And Standard Model is His prophet!

Re:Thought Crime

[slew]

As far as I can tell this guy did not actually do anything. He got 5 years for a thought crime.

Given this person is a theoretical physicist, perhaps thinking about, but not doing, is sufficient evidence of something? Just a thought ;^)

Re:What a dick.

[Anonymous Coward]

Interestingly, the BBC article calls CERN "Cern" as though it were a person. To whom do we address our complaints?

To Bbc?

Re:What a dick.

[SomePgmr]

Maybe a battlestar pilot with a habit of rubbing-one-out on the hangar deck after a successful run against the toasters.