Fine over Edinburgh Airport bomb comment
01.10.08
A Turkish man who said that he had two bombs in his luggage at Edinburgh Airport was fined £400 for his act of ‘absolute lunacy’, the Evening News reports.
Fatih Alemdaroglu, 44, pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace at the airport on Monday by saying he had two bombs in his luggage. Yesterday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court his defence solicitor Stephen Mannifield asked Sheriff to: ‘Treat my client as a silly man, not as a dangerous man’.
Fiscal Depute, Bruce Macrosson, said Mr Alemdaroglu, a Turkish national, was at a check-in desk on Monday afternoon when he was asked if he had anything dangerous in his luggage. ‘Just a couple of bombs’ he replied. The check-in worker contacted the police and he was arrested. He told them: ‘I said a bomb and right after that I said I was joking’.
Mr Mannifield said his client was a self-employed floorer and had been on his way to visit family in Turkey. He missed his flight, lost the money he had paid for his ticket and spent the night in custody. ‘As soon as he said it, he realised how stupid it was and tried to backtrack right away,’ he said.
Sheriff Gordon Liddle told Mr Alemdaroglu his actions had been ‘absolute lunacy’. He said people had to realise that making such remarks, in the light of the bombing at Glasgow Airport, was not in any way funny, and fined Mr Alemdaroglu £400.
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