A British-Indian man was acquitted of public disturbance by a Spanish court after joking with pals about being a Taliban member and preparing to blow up an aircraft from London's Gatwick to Menorca in spain in 2022. Aditya Verma admits to telling his pals in July 2022, "I'm on my way to blow up the plane." I am a member of the Taliban."

According to the BBC, he stated that he made the joke in a private Snapchat group and never intended to "cause public distress".

On Friday, a court in Madrid determined that "no explosive... was found that would lead one to believe it was a real threat".

The judge at the trial, conducted at the National court in the Spanish capital on monday - a year and a half after the event - determined that Verma, of Orpington, Kent, should be exonerated of all charges.

Before boarding the plane, he sent a message to pals, which was picked up by UK security agencies. They then reported it to Spanish police while the easyJet aircraft was still in the air.

Two Spanish F-18 fighter jets were sent to surround the aircraft. One followed the plane until it landed in Menorca, where it was searched.

Verma, who was 18 at the time, was arrested and detained in a Spanish police cell for two days. He was eventually released on bond.

If found guilty, the university student might face a punishment of up to 22,500 euros, as well as an additional 95,000 euros in charges to pay the cost of the scrambled jets.

Given that Snapchat is an encrypted service, it was unclear how the message got out.

One idea proposed during the trial was that it may have been intercepted via Gatwick's Wi-Fi network. However, an airport spokeswoman informed BBC news that the network "does not have that capability".

The judge in the resolution stated that the communication was caught by England's security mechanisms "for unknown reasons" when the jet was travelling over French airspace.

The transmittal of the message occurred "in a strictly private environment between the accused and his friends with whom he flew, through a private group to which only they have access, so the accused could not even remotely assume... that the joke he played on his friends could be intercepted or detected by the british services, nor by third parties other than his friends who received the message," the court said.
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G GOWTHAM

28/01/2024 11:38 AM