A 33-year old has been sentenced to nine months imprisonment for refusing to decrypt his personal computer files.
The unnamed man is believed to be the first person sentenced under Part III of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which came into power in October 2007. RIPA Part III was set up on the pretext that the government required legal access to suspected terrorists’ secret files of death and destruction. In the words of Jack Straw, who introduced the legislation: “It was government trying to put in place increased powers so that we could preserve and sustain our democracy against this new kind of threat.”
He was initially arrested in September 2008 coming back on the Eurostar from Paris, where French police sniffer dogs had detected the model rocket he was carrying. The rocket, made by American hobby company Estes, was in its original packaging and did not include the rocket engine. However the Metropolitan Police’s elite Counter-Terrorism Command (CTC) saw it fit to detain the suspect at the high security facilities of Paddington Green police station. During several hours’ questioning, he made no comment.
After being released on police bail in spite of minute traces of explosives detected on his body, he returned to the station as appointed. This time he was re-arrested for carrying a pocket knife.
At this point CTC demanded he provide access to several hard drives and USB key drives which they had seized during investigations. Refusing to do so, he was warned they would seek a section 49 notice under RIPA Part III, which gives a suspect a time limit to supply encryption keys or make target data intelligible. Failure to comply is an offence under section 53 of the same Part of the Act and carries a sentence of up to two years imprisonment, and up to five years imprisonment in an investigation concerning national security.
Following the warning, he was bailed again. Feeling harassed by the police and insisting he had done nothing wrong, he did not return as appointed. This led to the police raid on his home on 7th March this year.
Insisting throughout on his right to remain silent is ultimately what allowed him to be charged, on ten counts, under RIPA Part III.
He was also charged for his missed bail appearance and for two attempts to get a new passport, falsely claiming his was lost. He says CTC told him he would not get the one they had seized back, so he applied for a new one.
At the trial on 2nd June he pleaded guilty to all charges, wrongly believing he would be released that day thanks to time served. Instead, taking into account the passport offences and missed bail, he received a total of 13 months.
Before finishing what would have been a six-and-a-half-month prison term during September, the 33-year old was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He now does not know when he will be released from hospital.
