Joshua Walker: Student who fought against Isis in Syria cleared of terror charges over book he owned
Jury dismisses 'feeble' prosecution case over The Anarchist Cookbook
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A university student who volunteered to fight against Isis in Syria says he is “elated” after being cleared of terror charges.
Joshua Walker told The Independent his “heart was pounding” as he awaited the verdict for printing off a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook.
Jurors took less than three hours to acquit him of possessing “information useful to a person preparing for an act of terror” at Birmingham Crown Court.
The notorious Cookbook, first published in 1971, includes instructions on the manufacture of explosives and homemade drugs but Mr Walker told the court he downloaded it for a role-playing game two years ago
“No one would have ever known anything about it other than the people involved in the game,” he explained after being acquitted.
“I’d forgotten about it but when I got arrested for a serious charge, they searched my room.”
Police found the Anarchist Cookbook in a drawer under his bed during a raid on his student bedsit in Aberystwyth when he returned from Syria in December.
Mr Walker was detained at Gatwick Airport and initially arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts for volunteering with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to fight against Isis, where he said he also helped as an interpreter for US special forces.
That case was dropped, but prosecutors continue to pursue him over the anarchist material, claiming he had “no reasonable excuse” for printing it off.
Mr Walker’s lawyer condemned the “mad” decision to prosecute him, pointing out that the manual was readily available online, including from mainstream retailers.
“It’s a mad world where anti-terrorism laws are used, not against terrorists or people who help terrorists, but against harmless, curious young people," Joel Bennathan QC said, claiming that nothing was being done to block the sale or distribution of the Cookbook.
“There really is no public interest when the book is out there, it is for sale and nobody is attempting to restrict that,” he said during a debate about whether the ”draconian“ case should go ahead.
"It can be downloaded, purchased in the UK, from Amazon, so the information is out there and remains out there.
"Prosecuting Mr Walker does not put that genie back in the bottle.”
The student was studying international politics and strategic studies at the University of Aberystwyth, at the time of the alleged offence, telling the jury he printed off the Cookbook for the Crisis Games Society, which he helped run.
Mr Walker said it was a “massive relief” to be cleared. “My heart was pounding before they gave the verdict,” he added.
“There’s always that chance that you will happen to get the judge and the jury or whatever who are obsessed with the technicalities and not the broader context or spirit of the law.”
Mr Walker said jurors jokingly told his mother to “give him a slap from us” after the unanimous acquittal.
He dismissed the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) case as “feeble” and cautioned that the threat of prosecuting people researching extremist groups could “actually harm the fight against terrorism”.
His warning came after the Home Office proposed a new law criminalising “repeatedly viewing terrorist content online” – a prospect Mr Walker called “very dangerous” if researchers are not fully protected.
Mr Walker believes authorities would not have discovered his possession of the Anarchist Cookbook if he had not travelled to Syria to fight Isis, but urged other gamers to “take a little more care than I did”.
“I think arresting us [YPG volunteers] on suspicion of terror preparation is outrageous considering what we are doing,” he added.
“It’s made it harder to adjust to coming back home and it’s dragged things out for so long in a way that I only really feel at home right now.
“I don’t think in the context it was justified at all.”
Other YPG volunteers have been arrested upon their return to the UK but none have been charged, with British fighters remaining in Syria telling The Independent they are concerned about the prospect of Government action.
Mr Walker’s acquittal comes days after the death of Jac Holmes, who was killed while clearing landmines in Isis’ former stronghold of Raqqa.
The pair met only once in Syria but Mr Walker said he knew the 24-year-old former IT worker to be “a nice guy” and professional fighter.
He is temporarily working as a kitchen porter while living with his mother in Bristol, but plans to move into his own home and return to university next year.
Mr Walker said he does not currently intend to return to Syria’s battlefields, adding: “I’m really hoping that the war against Isis is done and dusted but I’d definitely consider going back to help reconstruction efforts.
“If another group that wanted to slaughter everyone there pops up, perhaps.”
His relieved parents, Adele Proctor and Dennis Walker, were in court to hear their son acquitted and were preparing for family celebrations.
Ms Proctor described the prosecution as “a waste of time”, adding: “The whole nature of this trial and his arrest, and the reasons for it, has frightened me equally as much as when he was in Syria to be quite honest."
Mr Walker said he was "proud" of his son's actions in Syria and said of his acquittal: "At the end of the day, the system has worked."