Most Everyone can be found sending jokes to friends of theirs. When they do this, they typically don’t think twice, especially if these jokes are made to close friends or on a platform that claims to be private, such as Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The last thing you would expect when texting and joking with your friends would be for the Spanish authorities to arrest and try to sue you. Unfortunately, that happened to 18-year-old British-Indian Chess prodigy Aditya Verm. On his way to vacation in Menorca with his friends after stressful exams, British 18-year-old Aditya Verma sent his friends a snap with the caption, “On my way to blow up the plane (I’m a member of the Taliban).” With no more thought to it, he boarded the plane.
Around this time this text was intercepted by the UK intelligence agency, a signal was sent to Spain where the plane was flying above. They immediately sent two F-18 fighter jets to escort the aircraft until it safely landed in Menorca. Upon arrival, Verma was arrested immediately by Spanish forces at the Airport and was taken into custody for two days. After hearing the news, his mother flew to Spain, hoping to convince the authorities that her son was joking. Following his return to the UK after receiving bail, he was questioned by M15 and M16.
At his trial, Verma stated in court, “It was just sent to my friends I was traveling with on the day; since school, it’s been a joke because of my features… It was to make people laugh.” He was charged with public disorder and fined €22,500 ($24,000). He was also sued for an additional charge of €95,000 ($103,000) by the Spanish government for the fighter jets escorting the plane, adding to a total of €117,5009 ($127,000) if found guilty. During his trial (where he was found NOT guilty), Aditya’s lawyers argued that his privacy had been invaded. UK claims the text was picked up when it was sent through the Airport’s public wifi, however, Aditya says otherwise, claiming he was using his private network, further making people question; Is my private information safe? Although the recipients’ wifi connections are still unknown. A considerable debate has started, especially since Snapchat insists their user’s privacy is their top priority, although their texts are not encrypted end-to-end. As other platforms take new measures to secure their users’ privacy, governments worldwide argue about the possibilities of an actual threat. However, the final decision remains undetermined, at least for now.
Despite Verma being the son of a doctor who graduated from one of the top universities in the UK, Verma also represented Britain when he was barely ten years old in the World Youth Chess Championships, securing 4th place for his country. But being a very bright and intelligent student throughout his academic career and having secured a position at Cambridge University (A very prestigious uni in the UK) before this incident, I highly doubt being arrested by Spain for terroristic threats of blowing up a plane is going to look good on college applications and his future is now most certainly put in a tight spot.
