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BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaBritish man acquitted over London-Spain flight bomb hoaxPublished31 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, EPAImage caption, Aditya Verma (R)’s one-day trial at Spain’s National Court took place earlier this weekBy Sam HancockBBC NewsA Spanish court has cleared a British man of public disorder, after he joked to friends about blowing up a flight from London Gatwick to Menorca.Aditya Verma admitted he told friends in July 2022: “On my way to blow up the plane. I’m a member of the Taliban.”But he said he had made the joke in a private Snapchat group and never intended to “cause public distress”.A judge in Madrid ruled that “no explosive… was found that would lead one to believe it was a real threat”.Mr Verma’s trial, held at the National Court in the Spanish capital, took place on Monday – a year-and-a-half after the incident took place.The message he sent to friends, before boarding the plane, went on to be picked up by UK security services. They then flagged it to Spanish authorities while the easyJet plane was still in the air.Two Spanish F-18 fighter jets were sent to flank the aircraft. One followed the plane until it landed at Menorca, where the plane was searched.Mr Verma, who was 18 at the time, was arrested and held in a Spanish police cell for two days. He was later released on bail.A judge ruled earlier that Mr Verma, of Orpington, Kent, should be cleared of any wrongdoing.If he had been found guilty, the university student faced a fine of up to €22,500 (£19,300) and a further €95,000 in expenses to cover the cost of the jets being scrambled. Image source, Marcus Torr/ReutersImage caption, One of the two Spanish F18 fighters seen through the window of the easyJet flight from London to MenorcaA key question in the case was how the message got out, considering Snapchat is an encrypted app. One theory, raised in the trial, was that it could have been intercepted via Gatwick’s Wi-Fi network. But a spokesperson for the airport told BBC News that its network “does not have that capability”.In the judge’s resolution, cited by the Europa Press news agency, it was said that the message, “for unknown reasons, was captured by the security mechanisms of England when the plane was flying over French airspace”.The message was made “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 judgement added. It was not immediately clear how UK authorities were alerted to the message, with the judge noting “they were not the subject of evidence in this trial”.A spokesperson for Snapchat said the social media platform would not “comment on what’s happened in this individual case”.On its website, in a section titled “How We Work with Law Enforcement Authorities”, Snapchat says one of its goals is to “maintain a safe and fun environment where Snapchatters are free to express themselves and stay in touch with their real friends”.It adds: “We also work to proactively escalate to law enforcement any content appearing to involve imminent threats to life, such as school shooting threats, bomb threats and missing persons cases, and respond to law enforcement’s emergency requests for disclosure of data when law enforcement is handling a case involving an imminent threat to life. “In the case of emergency disclosure requests from law enforcement, our 24/7 team usually responds within 30 minutes.”Additional reporting by Laura Gozzi and Monica SorianoRelated TopicsSpainMadridGatwick AirportMore on this storyBriton in Madrid court over Snapchat plane-bomb hoaxPublished3 days agoTop StoriesFamilies’ anger as triple killer gets hospital orderPublished18 minutes agoWatch: Killer’s rampage and arrest caught on camera. 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[ad_1] The message was made “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,…
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaIgor Girkin shot down a passenger jet, then insulted Putin. Which one put him in jail?Published1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsWar in UkraineImage source, MAXIM SHIPENKOV/EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockImage caption, Igor Girkin has escaped justice for downing flight MH17 but is going to jail after criticising Vladimir PutinBy Steve RosenbergRussia Editor, MoscowThe last time I saw Igor Girkin was five years ago in the stairwell of a Moscow news agency.”Would you consider giving me an interview?” I asked. “No,” he replied sharply and scurried away.I saw him again today. No stairwell. This time, Girkin was in a caged dock surrounded by police in the Moscow City Court. Along with other media we were allowed in to film him for just one minute before the end of his trial. A police dog kept barking. Girkin found that amusing. The verdict less so. Minutes later he was found guilty on extremism charges and sentenced to four years in a penal colony. This wasn’t his first conviction. In The Hague in 2022, in absentia, Girkin was found guilty of the murder of 298 people: the passengers and crew of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. The Boeing jet had been shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014 by Russian-controlled forces in the early stages of Russia’s war there. Girkin was one of three men sentenced to life imprisonment. A judgement he ignored.A year after we’d met in the stairwell, I managed to get through to Girkin on the phone and ask him about the Hague. “I do not recognise the authority of the Dutch court on this matter,” he told me. “I am a military man and I am not going to accept that a civilian court in a foreign country has the authority to convict a person who took part in someone else’s civil war, only because their civilians were killed.”Do you know who shot down [the plane]?””The rebels didn’t shoot down the Boeing. I have nothing more to say.”This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Media caption, Russian rebel commander Igor Girkin told the BBC in 2020 he did not recognise the court’s authority”If it wasn’t the rebels, then was it Russian soldiers?” I asked.”That’s it. Goodbye.” He hung up. Now he is going to prison. But not for mass murder. And not for life. So, who exactly is Girkin – also known under his pseudonym as Igor Strelkov – and why has a Moscow court sent him to jail?He is a former FSB officer in Russia’s domestic security service. In 2014 he played a key role in the fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region: a conflict engineered and orchestrated by Moscow.He organised and commanded pro-Russia militias in eastern Ukraine. The Dutch court would later rule that Russia had been in control of the separatist forces fighting in eastern Ukraine and that Girkin had helped to bring the Buk missile system into Ukraine that was used to shoot down flight MH17. Three guilty of downing airliner over UkrainePutin critic Girkin wants Russia presidential runFollowing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ultranationalist Girkin became a prominent pro-war blogger. He became increasingly critical of the way the Russian authorities were waging the war: not hard enough, in his view. He founded a hard line nationalist movement called The Club of Angry Patriots. His problems began when he started to take that anger out on President Vladimir Putin. Public criticisms of the Russian president turned to insults. In a post last year, Girkin described Putin as “a non-entity” and “a cowardly waste of space”. A few days later he was arrested. Now he’s been tried and convicted. Of course, a four-year prison sentence is mild in comparison to other recent punishments delivered by Russian courts. Last year pro-democracy activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to a quarter of a century behind bars after being convicted of treason, a case he and his supporters insist was politically motivated.Putin critic jailed for 25 years in Russia’Send back our husbands’ – Russian women in rare protestHow would the “Angry Patriots” react to Girkin’s prison term? Would they pour on to the streets in protest? Image source, MAXIM SHIPENKOV/EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockImage caption, Some of Girkin supporters were detained outside the court in MoscowNot exactly. A few dozen supporters gathered outside the Moscow City Court to chant “Freedom to Strelkov!” but there was little hint of optimism in their voices. “They’ve put a Russian national patriot on trial,” Denis tells me. “I hope our people wake up and fight. Unfortunately, we don’t see much pushback. Everyone seems to be hiding away.”Also in the crowd was retired colonel and outspoken ultranationalist Vladimir Kvachkov.Having informed me that “Russia will always be the enemy of the Anglo-Saxon West” and assured me that the break-up of the United Kingdom was inevitable, Mr Kvachkov claimed that Girkin was being punished for “fighting against the system.”In recent years the “system” concentrated on clearing the Russian political landscape of pro-democracy, pro-Western critics and challengers. A prison sentence for Girkin suggests the Russian authorities have now decided to crackdown on critics from the opposite end of spectrum: the so-called ultra-patriots. Last year’s mutiny by Wagner mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin may be the reason. The Putin system survived the challenge. But that drama will have alerted the Kremlin to the potential dangers from highly motivated nationalistic and patriotic elements in Russian society.Related TopicsWar in UkraineRussiaVladimir PutinMore on this storyPutin critic Girkin wants Russia presidential runPublished19 November 2023Pro-war Putin critic Strelkov detained in MoscowPublished21 July 2023Wanted Russian rebel scorns MH17 trial. Video, 00:01:25Wanted Russian rebel scorns MH17 trialPublished9 March 20201:25Top StoriesFamilies’ anger as triple killer gets hospital orderPublished24 minutes agoWatch: Killer’s rampage and arrest caught on camera. 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