By Terence Dooley
Former British and Commonwealth light-middleweight titlist Anthony Small has been cleared of encouraging terrorism by a jury at the Old Bailey. The 36-year-old was hit with the charge after publishing a Youtube video in which he railed against Western big business, accusing them of being negative influences and supporters of the military.
The jury took three days to deliberate before deciding that the Muslim convert, who now goes by the name Abdul Haqq, had not contravened anti-terrorism laws via what he described as “light-hearted poetry”.
Small has often taken to social media to denounce the West—particularly the UK, US, and Israel—and riffed on Burger Kings signature patty by saying: “We are going to flame-grill you from the sky”. He has also expressed a desire to see the fall of the seats of power in the UK and US.
He said: “In fact, hijack an American-made Humvee and stick a black flag over the USA eagle...Soon there will be no more airstrikes in the name of democracy, while they drop bombs that are lethal instead it will be us coming to them with Islam and the Sharia and teach them there is no interfaith because tawheed [divine monotheism] and shirk [associating partners with God] will never be equal.”
However, Small’s sign off stating that he was not attempting to incite violence or acts of terrorism was a key part of his defence. In a written statement, he claimed that: ‘What I said was entirely within the bounds of lawful free speech’.
His defence also compared his actions to those of members of the Conservative Party in the 1980s who called for Nelson Mandela to be executed for his crimes. The former fighter’s defendant, David Emanuel, argued that Small’s talk was also merely “rhetoric”, saying: “Anthony Small's post wasn't supposed to be taken seriously.”
The prosecution, led by Karen Robinson, argued that Small was deliberately using inflammatory language and he knew that certain terms would be taken as a call to take violent action, but after a combined total of eight hours the jurors came to the conclusion that Small was not guilty of the charge and acquitted the Londoner.
Want to know more about Small’s recent past and court cases? Read: Dooley Noted: The Diminishing of Anthony Small.
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