His “joke” on Snapchat got him sued.
Aditya Verma, a 19-year-old Englishman, appeared before a court in Madrid (Spain) this Monday, January 22, for having made false threats against a London-Menorca flight in July 2022, reports the BBC.
If found guilty, the student risks having to pay a heavy fine as well as compensation from the Spanish Ministry of Defense to cover expenses incurred after two Spanish Air Force planes were mobilized .
“On the way to blow up the plane”
As he was preparing to board a flight to the island of Menorca with friends from Gatwick Airport in London (United Kingdom), this Briton posted a comment on Snapchat that he considered “humorous”: “ On my way to blow up the plane (I'm part of the Taliban).”
He sent the message while connected to the airport's Wi-Fi, which raised an alert.
British security services received the message while the EasyJet plane was already in flight.
They therefore alerted the Spanish authorities, who dispatched two F-18 fighter planes from the Air Force.
One of them followed the plane until it landed in Menorca where the plane was thoroughly searched to rule out any suspicion.
Aditya Verma was then arrested and spent two days in cell before being released on bail.
Returning to the UK, he was questioned by British intelligence services MI5 and MI6, before returning home to Orpington, south-east London.
A “joke in a private group”
He appeared before a Madrid court on Monday, and spoke of his regrets after this comment: “My intention was never to cause harm to other passengers or to harm them.”
Now studying economics at the University of Bath (south-west of the United Kingdom), he explained that it was a “joke in a private group”.
Also read: What do the perpetrators of false bomb threats risk?
Police experts told the court that they had combed through Aditya Verma's phone and although they found that he had researched the Pakistan-India clashes and on the possibilities of an Islamic State attack in this region, they did not find anything interesting that connects Aditya Verma to jihadist radicalism.
The British suspect is therefore not accused of terrorism and does not face a prison sentence, but he could be fined 22,500 euros if found guilty, and the Spanish Ministry of Defense could claim from him up to 95,000 euros in costs.
His sentence must be communicated by the court in the coming days.