“It was a laborious process, as we had to record every detail of his activities on two different Twitter handles. We also had to include the incriminating evidence that we obtained from his laptop and smartphone. We have a strong case against him,” the source added.

My thoughts the day of his arrest remain the same:

Shami Witness did not recruit for ISIS. He was not a member of ISIS. There's no indication he got his information from any official ISIS source. There's no indication he was paid or compensated by ISIS.He was followed by many Western militants, researchers, analysts, journalists and bloggers because of his reputation as being knowledgeable and because (1) his English was very good and (2) he knew who to follow on Twitter to get and tweet out the news faster than most. Yes, he took ISIS' side in his tweets. But he also disagreed with them at times. Yes, he may have communicated with some British ISIS fighters and retweeted the accounts of ISIS fighters. Yes he is a propagandist of ISIS views. But as researcher Aymenn Jawad al-Tamini says, his role on Twitter was really just one of a disseminator and aggregator of ISIS news.

...I find ISIS' actions as abhorrent as everyone else does. I think ISIS' views are a twisted interpretation of Islam and that Sharia law is barbaric. But I still say #FreeShamiWitness. Expressing one's support for an unpopular group one isn't a member of and hasn't provided tangible assistance to should not be a crime.

Free Shami Witness.