At least 35,000 people worldwide have been convicted as terrorists in the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. But while some bombed hotels or blew up buses, others were put behind bars for waving a political sign or blogging about a protest.
In the first tally ever done of global anti-terrorism arrests and convictions, The Associated Press documented a surge in prosecutions under new or toughened anti-terror laws, often passed at the urging and with the funding of the West. Before 9/11, just a few hundred people were convicted of terrorism each year.
The sheer volume of convictions, along with almost 120,000 arrests, shows how a keen global awareness of terrorism has seeped into societies, and how the war against it is shifting to the courts. But it also suggests that dozens of countries are using the fight against terrorism to curb political dissent.
AP used freedom of information queries, law enforcement data and hundreds of interviews to identify 119,044 anti-terrorism arrests and 35,117 convictions in 66 countries accounting for 70 percent of the world’s population. The actual numbers undoubtedly run higher because some countries refused to provide information.
The total included 2,934 arrests and 2,568 convictions in the United States, which led the war on terror — eight times more than in the decade before.
The investigation also showed:
• More than half the convictions came from two countries accused of using anti-terrorism laws to crack down on dissent, Turkey and China. Turkey alone accounted for a third of all convictions, with 12,897.
• The range of people in jail reflects the dozens of ways different countries define a terrorist. China has arrested more than 7,000 people under a definition that counts terrorism as one of Three Evils, along with separatism and extremism.
• The effectiveness of anti-terrorism prosecutions varies widely. Pakistan registered the steepest increase in terrorism arrests in recent years, yet terrorism attacks are still on the rise. But in Spain, the armed Basque separatist group ETA has not planted a fatal bomb in two years.
• Anti-terrorism laws can backfire. Authoritarian governments in the Middle East used anti-terrorism laws broadly, only to face a backlash in the Arab Spring.
“There’s been a recognition all around the world that terrorism really does pose a greater threat to society,” said John Bellinger, former legal adviser to the U.S. State Department. “Also, more authoritarian countries are using the real threat of terrorism as an excuse and a cover to crack down in ways that are abusive of human rights.”
Anti-terrorism efforts around the world
Since 9/11, almost every country in the world has passed or revised anti-terrorism laws, from tiny Tonga to giant China.
Turkey, long at odds with its Kurdish minority, tops all other countries AP could tally for anti-terrorism convictions and their steep rise. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party is responsible for much of the violence in the country of 75 million.
Naciye Tokova, a Kurdish mother of two, held up a sign at a protest last year that said, “Either a free leadership and free identity, or resistance and revenge until the end.” She couldn’t read the sign because she cannot read.
She was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison under anti-terrorism laws.
“Of course, I’m not a terrorist,” said Tokova, who is free on appeal. She was defiant, replying curtly to questions after long pauses.
Turkey passed new and stricter anti-terrorism laws in 2006. Convictions shot up from 273 in 2005 to 6,345 in 2009, the latest year available, according to data AP got through Turkey’s right to information law.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the country is fair to its Kurds.
“We have never compromised on the balance between security and freedom,” Erdogan said.
Turkey clearly reflects the saying that one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. What makes a terrorist depends on where you are and whom you ask. In the U.S., the FBI, the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department don’t agree on what terrorism is.
“If anything should have revealed to the world the essence of unacceptable terrorism, it was 9/11. Unfortunately, a decade later, we seem no closer to reaching agreement,” said law professor Kent Roach at the University of Toronto.
China considers terrorism part of a vague charge of “endangering state security” and calls strong laws necessary to ensure safety. The people arrested under the laws come mostly from Xinjiang, known as East Turkistan to ethnic Uighurs fighting for an independent homeland.
Two years ago, Uighur entrepreneur Dilshat Perhat warned visitors to his popular Uighur-language website not to post political comments. Even so, someone posted a call for a demonstration in the middle of the night. Perhat deleted the comments the next day and informed the police, as required. But he was arrested anyway, convicted in a one-day trial and sentenced to five years in prison.
“They wanted to use him as an example, to threaten and show their power to the Uighur people,” said Perhat’s brother Dilmurat, a graduate student in the U.S. “Inside China, any peaceful protest by the Uighurs is labeled as an act of terrorism by the Chinese government.”
Rush to prosecute yields mixed results
The increase in anti-terrorism prosecutions worldwide reflects how much they have become a weapon, however blunt, against terrorism, but their record is spotty.
With the help of billions of dollars from the U.S., Pakistan had the steepest rise in terrorism arrests of any country AP examined. Pakistan amended its terrorism laws in 2004.
Arrests went up from 1,552 in 2006 to 12,886 in 2009, partly because of four military operations that year.
Yet terrorism in Pakistan is still on the rise, and only Iraq beats Pakistan for deaths from terrorism. One reason may be a conviction rate of only 10 percent in terrorism cases, compared with 90 percent in the U.S.
Like Pakistan, Spain is no stranger to terrorism but has had some success fighting it. Spain has about 140 convictions a year, according to data from AP’s freedom of information request.
ETA, the Basque separatist group, once was responsible for killings every month. Today it is severely weakened.
“The terrorist attacks 10 years ago on the World Trade Center and the Madrid bombings helped forge a strong feeling of rejection toward ETA,” said Spanish journalist Gorka Landaburu, who is Basque and himself a victim of an ETA mail bomb in May 2001 that blew off his thumb and fingertips. “Society lost a bit of its fear.”
Turkey: Protest sign was her downfall
Naciye Tokova
The Kurdish mother and housewife was sentenced to seven years in jail for helping rebels who are labeled by Turkey as terrorists. The key piece of evidence against Tokova, who is illiterate, was the sign that she held up at a protest. It said: “Either a free leadership and free identity, or resistance and uprising until the end.” The punishment stems from the Turkish state’s homegrown narrative of terrorism, rooted in the bloody legacy of Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan. Tokova is free on appeal. “Of course, I’m not a terrorist,” she says.
Spain: Victim grateful for crackdown
Gorka Landaburu
The injured journalist lies in a hospital bed in San Sebastian, Spain, in 2001 after a letter bomb exploded in his hands. Landaburu, who is Basque, had become the latest victim of ETA, an armed Basque separatist group, because he opposed its violent attacks. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Spain passed a tough new law that enabled it to ban political parties that support terrorist acts. Landaburu still has two bodyguards, but he feels ETA’s days are numbered. “Things are much calmer,” he said. “People can breathe more easily.”
Saber Ragoubi
The 28-year-old Islamist points out the gaps in his teeth where, he says, prison guards kicked his teeth out. He says he joined an anti-government group in 2006 because he wanted religious freedom. The group was trained by an Algerian group that later declared allegiance to al-Qaeda. Ragoubi says he never held a weapon, but he did support plans to attack police. He was tried, sentenced to life and tortured. Tunisia used its anti-terrorism laws against Islamic militancy. Ragoubi was freed after Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown.
Tunisia: Terrorist or victim?
Guantanamo Bay
A detainee peers from his cell in 2006 in the Camp Delta detention facility in Cuba. About 520 Guantanamo detainees have been released or transferred to prisons elsewhere in the world. There are 171 still held at the facility. President Obama planned to shut down the facility upon taking office in 2009, but it has remained open as the administration works on what to do with the inmates. Associated Press photos
