Cypriot student faces UK jail for taking flares on to plane

A Cypriot student faces possible prison time after he admitted taking eight explosive flares on to a passenger plane at a British airport as well as possessing a terrorist manual.

Andreas Pierides, 22, was stopped on the gangway at Stansted airport as he was about to board a flight to Cyprus on 15 May, The Guardian reported Saturday.

According to the report, police were alerted to Pierides after a member of the public spotted him on a train reading an electronic publication with instructions on how to make a car bomb on 19 January.

As UK authorities arrested him, officers seized a box of distress signal mini-flares which they found inside luggage that had already been stowed on the plane, court records indicate.

However, they handed them back in error after Pierides was charged for having a terrorist manual.

Five days later, police went to his bail address in north London to ask for the flares back and arrest him again, this time under the Aviation Security Act 1982.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey, the Southampton University business student pleaded guilty to a charge under the 2000 Terrorism Act of possessing an electronic version of the Anarchist Cookbook.

Prosecutor Alex Chalk said the flares were packed in a compact box and would only have exploded if there had been an extern`al fire.

He said it was accepted that the defendant had been “stupid and naive” and did not associate with terrorists.

But while it was not illegal to have flares in his native country, ignorance of British law was “immaterial” to the case, he said.

A fan of Cypriot team AC Omonia, the defendant, had the flares for use at football matches, the court heard.

The judge Justice Sweeney ordered a pre-sentence report and adjourned sentencing to 27 October.