This year saw one of the worst abuses of anti-terror law when Samina Malik, the so-called "lyrical terrorist", was convicted of terrorism. While the conviction was officially for possession of Al-Qaeda propaganda, the fact that she had written poetry praising Jihad was used by the prosecution to demonise Malik as a dangerous woman likely to act on her beliefs. Today, that conviction has been quashed, after the Crown Prosecution Service admitted it was unsafe. Looking deeper, it seems that the prosecution lied to the jury about what documents were considered illegal, and falsely represented propaganda and theological material (as opposed to, say, bomb-making manuals) as grounds for conviction. They have now decided not to press for a retrial.
While Malik did not serve a prison sentence, she was unjustly convicted, and I'm glad to see sanity finally prevail.
