I would settle for a complete stripping of their residency and/or citizenship, including hard time and labor.
Travel to Syria to fight and be jailed for LIFE warns top prosecutor as authorities try to stem tide of young Britons joining rebels against Assad
- Sue Hemming is head of counter-terrorism at Crown Prosecution Service
- Said Brits who go to fight abroad are breaking UK law and will be charged
- Said even ‘freedom fighters’ waging war on ‘loathsome dictators’ at risk
- A growing number of Britons are leaving the UK to join the Syrian civil war
- Seven British residents are awaiting trial over charges connected to war
- Ms Hemming said the maximum penalty they faced was life imprisonment
By HARRIET ARKELL
PUBLISHED: 17:13 GMT, 3 February 2014 | UPDATED: 19:00 GMT, 3 February 2014
Sue Hemming, head of counter-terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, says that Britons who go to fight in Syria will be prosecuted
British citizens who leave the country to join the war in Syria will be prosecuted and could be imprisoned for life, a Crown Prosecution Service chief warned today.
Sue Hemming, head of counter-terrorism at the CPS, said even ‘freedom fighters’ who wanted to defeat ‘loathsome’ dictators such as president Bashar Assad would be dealt with ‘robustly’ when they returned to the UK.
She said that Britons who go abroad to study at terror training camps were breaking the law and would face charges, saying some could be prosecuted even before they’d left Britain if there was evidence that they were planning to fight.
Ms Hemming also warned that further prosecutions would be brought against those yet to depart if police found evidence that they were planning to fight.
Her comments came after a recent spate of arrests by police of young Britons travelling to Britain or planning to go, and a warning from a senior police chief about those who went away to fight.
Last month at least 16 people were arrested on suspicion of terror offences after travelling between Syria and the UK, compared to 24 in the whole of 2013.
Ms Hemming said: ‘The message for people who are considering going out there and getting involved in terrorist training or getting involved in the conflict is that they will be potentially breaking the law in this country.’
She added: ‘Potentially it’s an offence to go out and get involved in a conflict, however loathsome you think the people on the other side are.
