Pakistan Terror Accused Acted in Self-defence, Court Hears

Two London-based men accused of inciting terrorist attacks in Pakistan were acting in self-defence, a court heard yesterday.

Faiz Baluch, 27, from Wembley, north London, and Hyrbyair Marri, 40, from Ealing, west London, have both pleaded not guilty to assisting terrorism and incitement to murder abroad.

Defending Baluch, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC told Woolwich crown court he was a "casualty of geopolitics" and the US-led war on terror.

It is alleged that the two men encouraged acts of violence against Pakistan via website Baloch Warna (Baluch Youth).

"This case is not about jihad or al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden," said Kennedy. "These men abhor the distortion of Islam by Osama bin Laden."

She said the people of Baluchistan were "suffering a slow death" at the hands of the Pakistan government. Their land had been used for nuclear weapons tests in 1998, which had caused cancer and leukemia. Those who protested against the behavior of the Pakistani authorities, she said, faced prison, torture and death. "This case is about classic self-defence, not regime change." If the case was not so serious, she said, "it would be laughable."

After 9/11, said Kennedy, "a lot of nations called their dissidents terrorists" and the former Pakistani dictator, Pervez Musharraf, had used this excuse to label the Baluchis as such. "In law, people are entitled to defend themselves," she said. "If the Germans had marched into Britain, we would have been entitled to resist."

Giving evidence, Baluch said he had been born in the part of Baluchistan now in Iran but had been educated in Quetta, which was under the control of Pakistan. He came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2002, and worked as a kitchen porter in Coventry before meeting fellow exile Marri and moving to London.

Baluch said the website, which was set up in 2004, was "to report what is happening, the human rights violations and to bring the plight of the Baluch people to international attention." He denied he ever used the site to incite people to kill.

He told the court about the shelling of the Baluch village of Dera Bugti in 2005 in which around 30 people died after protests that a woman doctor had been raped by members of the Pakistani military.

The case, which started last month, continues.