IS terror threats made to council
Court told of man’s phone rant to staff
A man made menacing comments about terror group Islamic State during a council tax rant which reduced a female council worker to tears.
Asad Nisar threatened the terrified 25-year-old with “out and out war” because he was angry about his mum’s council tax bill going up.
The 40-year-old Pakistani national spoke about joining the terrorist organisation and told the sobbing call handler: “I’m going to join in this war against you.”
Unemployed Nisar, who lives with his pensioner mum at Sutherland Way in Livingston, denied breaching the Telecommunications Act by making a menacing call.
He told Livingston Sheriff Court he hadn’t meant to alarm anyone and claimed he was being victimised because of his foreign race and Muslim religion.
Finding Nisar guilty, Sheriff Eric Brown said: “The public associate Islamic State with extreme violence, murder and barbarism on a very significant scale.
“Indeed, the public is constantly being reminded of the threats to the security of everybody in this country by those who are members of IS.”
Quoting the accused’s threats, Sheriff Brown said they could not be regarded as having anything other than a menacing character.
He said: “I’m not speculating that anything would have come of these remarks but I’m satisfied that the test has been met.”
He called for background reports and told Nisar he would be sentenced on November 18.
A 25-year-old West Lothian council tax employee took Nisar’s call on April 1 this year and told him she wouldn’t discuss his mother’s bill.
Suddenly, she said, the conversation changed completely and he started to talk about joining Islamic State. The woman said:
“That’s a terrorist organisation and I couldn’t speak after that. I was in shock – upset.”
A recording of the call was played at Nisar’s trial.
He is heard asking her: “I’m being pushed out of this country. Should I go to the Islamic State?
“You’re going to have to speak to me at the end of the day. That’s the situation we’re in.
“You don’t have a choice. It’s getting worse and worse.
“It is war. It’s out and out war.
“I have to join this war against you.
“That’s what you’ve pushed me into.”
The employee is heard sobbing and clearly distressed as she reports the Islamic State threats to her supervisor.
A West Lothian Council contact centre manager told the court the young woman was “upset and crying” as a result of the call.
She told the court: “I said to him what are you playing at? Why are you making threats?”
She said Nisar apologised to her for upsetting the employee, then told her: “You people are all the same and it’s a war.
“That’s why I have to go to Islamic State.”
She added: “He meant it as a threat.
“The only things I’ve heard on the news about Islamic State is about war and terrorism and things like that.
“I told him that I had no choice but to call the police because he appeared to be making a threat of some sort.”
Giving evidence in his own defence, Nisar claimed he was under stress and suffering from depression, panic attacks and a caffeine allergy at the time.
He said: “I was trying to express my situation, my grief, how bad my situation was becoming. I was appealing for help.
“At that point I was very confused. I was very much breathless. I feel perhaps I might have been going through a panic attack and anxiety but I didn’t know.”
He admitted that although he knew the conversation was being recorded from the very beginning, he might have made the remarks “out of anger”.
He insisted: “I didn’t intend for anybody to be alarmed at all.
“I thought that would be the only thing that would register with her head.”