London: A London appeal court quashed today the convictions of five young men jailed after Islamist extremist material was found on their computers.

Four students from Bradford University in northern England were arrested after the fifth man, Mohammed Irfan Raja, ran away from his London home in 2006,leaving a note for his parents saying he was going to fight abroad.

They were sentenced to between two years and three years in July 2007. The prosecution said they were all planning to go to Pakistan for training before going to fight jihad.

All denied having articles for terrorism and said the material, downloaded from the Internet, was not intended to encourage terrorism or martyrdom.

They denied having extremist views and some said they were researching ideology.

Raja, 20,of Ilford, east London, and students Awaab Iqbal, 20,of Bradford; Aitzaz Zafar, 21,of Rochdale, north-west England; Usman Ahmed Malik, 22,of Bradford, and Akbar Butt, 21,of Southall, west London, were present in the Court of Appeal for the day s ruling.

Allowing their appeals, Lord Nicholas Phillips said: "We do not consider that it was made plain to the jury ... that the case that the appellants had to face was that they possessed the extremist material for use in the future to incite the commission of terrorist acts.

"We doubt whether the evidence supported such a case."

Zafar's lawyer Imran Khan said outside court that the judgement made clear that possession of material must be for intent to use it unlawfully.

Source : PTI