At first glance, the sentencing of Ahmed Brahim to 10 years in prison in Spain for attempting to set up web pages for al-Qaeda looks to be a significant blow to those behind the online Jihad, setting a precedent, at least in one country, that those who seek to spread al-Qaeda?s vicious ideology online can be tracked down and held accountable to the law. So far, most of these website creators and administrators in western countries have avoided being penalized for these activities, in part due to ambiguities around free speech protection or various other issues surrounding Internet-based offenses. Previous Jihadist ?webmasters? who have been identified have not been charged or sentenced for their online activities. Younis Tsouli, also known as ?Irhabi 007,? is being charged with real world terrorist activities, not for his suspected role as a lynchpin in the architecture of the online Jihad . Babar Ahmad, who like Tsouli was arrested in the United Kingdom , is being charged for conspiracy to kill and for supporting terrorist activities by providing financing, material support, and money laundering, not for the circulation of al-Qaeda propaganda on his radical website, azzam.com . Both Ahmad and Tsouli have yet to be prosecuted successfully. There has also yet to be any news of charges against UK-based Islamist Mohammed al-Massari, whose organization, al-Tajdeed, hosts a Jihadist forum on their website (Terror Web Watch). A fatwa signed by al-Massari approving of suicide operations also appears on the site.
France has come down somewhat on general extremism in the cyber realm. In 2001, a judge in France ordered Yahoo, Inc. to block the access of people in France to Nazi memorabilia available on its auction site (source). After 9/11 , France looked into at least one Islamist extremist site and the person behind it. Smain Bedrouni, believed to be behind one of the two largest and best-known radical French language Islamist sites, La Voix Des Opprimes (?the Voice of the Oppressed? www.stcom.net), was brought under formal judicial investigation for praising the 9/11 attacks and encouraging Jihad. However, Bedrouni was not charged, and La Voix des Opprimes is still alive and well (it is now hosted in the United States ).
It would seem that the world is a fairly safe place for those who would seek to spread extremist ideology and even promote violence on the Internet. In such a context, the sentencing of Brahim should come as welcome news. After all, news reports say that he has been sentenced to 10 years for attempting to set up websites to distribute al-Qaeda propaganda. Brahim had not yet launched any such sites. According to the court ruling, at the time of his arrest in April 2002, he was ?creating, to distribute by Internet, a Web page to teach the most radical and extremist Islamic content, that proposes ?holy war? against all those who don’t share their beliefs? (source).
However, what initially looks like the first example of a European court deciding to come down hard against online Jihadists is probably more the result of an inability to prosecute Brahim on more serious charges. When he was arrested in April 2002, he was not characterized as a radical site webmaster. Instead, he was said to be a key member of Osama bin Laden?s al-Qaeda network. He was named ?al-Qaeda?s financial chief? for Spain, as well as ?a leading planner of the bomb attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania? (source) (Terrorist Incident and Terrorist Incident). Spanish Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy said that Brahim had provided financing to al-Qaeda members in at least nine countries, among them the infamous ?Hamburg Cell? in Germany that participated in 9/11 (source). Rajoy said that Brahim?s arrest dealt ?a heavy blow to the finance apparatus of this terrorist network? (source).
It appears that, rather than getting Brahim on larger, more serious charges, the website charge was settled upon instead. It is only speculation whether this was because the prosecution could not garner enough evidence of Brahim?s other suspected terrorist activities or whether there were other reasons why Brahim was tried as al-Qaeda in Spain?s webmaster, rather than its Chief Financial Officer, as well as a possible planner of the African embassy bombings.
Brahim?s sentencing may be more representative of a failure to convict him on more serious charges than it is a success for those fighting online Jihadists. Though it represents an interesting ?first? in western countries, it is still the case that the activities of circulating ideology and promoting violence online alone have not been enough for anyone to go to jail. There is, therefore, little disincentive for individuals to set up such sites, a factor that may contribute to their proliferation.