[4][5] [6] Sabir was in the process of preparing his forthcoming PhD proposal, and he was being advised and helped by his friend Yezza, who was a member of staff at the university of Nottingham at the time.
[10] According to reports by Al-Jazeera, Sabir stated he was "subjected to psychological torture" and believed that "If [the UK] is trying to stop the radicalisation of Muslims the way to do that is not by locking away innocent people... That will only exacerbate the problem.
"[10] Sabir stated that he would continue with his PhD despite the recent events and use his experiences to raise awareness of the draconian anti-terror powers that the government had implemented.
[4] The entire incident led to public criticism at the time of Campbell, who appeared unwilling to defend the notion of academic freedom in his response to the arrest.
[15] Criticism for the University of Nottingham was increased when the Politics Department established a "module review committee" that "scrutinises" the "reading lists of lecturers" in case they contain "material that is illegal or could incite violence".
[16] David Miller, professor of sociology at the University of Strathclyde and the convenor of Teaching About Terrorism, said: "Nottingham's review policy represented a fundamental attack on academic freedom.
A lecturer in the school of politics and international relations stated:We are greatly concerned by the disproportionate nature of the university’s response to the possession of legitimate research materials.
[18] For an April 2011 conference of the British International Studies Association (BISA), Thornton prepared a long paper about the behaviour of Nottingham University's management team following the arrests of Yezza and Sabir.
[19] In the document, Thornton gave details of what he considered to be the systematic persecution and lies allegedly perpetrated by the management against Yezza, Sabir and junior academics at the university.
Thornton says that officers invented claims that he had concerns over the manual which he says are an apparent attempt to justify the arrest and police anti-terror operation, codenamed Minerva".
[The report] also states that the actual minutes of the Gold Group meeting of the detectives assigned to the case "incorrectly recorded" their conversation with Thornton.
[27] On 12 June 2011, the whistle-blowing website Unileaks.org and the campaign created in support of Rod Thornton, "S.W.A.N",[28] leaked in excess of 200 internal university, police, Special Branch, Home Office and Crown Prosecution Service documents, which they claimed, corroborated the claims made by Thornton that the University undertook a campaign of sabotage against the Nottingham Two before and after their arrest.
"[31] On 22 June 2011, the Chair of the British International Studies Association wrote an open letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, Professor David Greenaway, which stated that there was a "strong feeling of unease and concern across [BISA] over the issue of academic freedom raised by, but certainly not confined to, the ongoing case of Dr Rod Thornton".
[32] The letter also called for the University of Nottingham to "consider" supporting an independent inquiry into the allegations and issues raised in Thornton's report.
On 6 June 2011, Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza appeared on the BBC's Newsnight programme to discuss their arrests and the Conservative government's re-introduction of the 'Preventing violent extremism' strategy.
[37] He also claimed under the Data Protection Act 1998 regarding a criminal intelligence file that Nottinghamshire Police held on him, which had an incorrect assertion that he had been convicted of a terrorist offence.
[37][38] In addition to the £20,000 settlement, the Chief Constable, Ms Julia Hodson of Nottinghamshire Police conceded that "there was "no evidence to justify any criminal charge" against Mr Sabir" and agreed to "delete the inaccurate information from the intelligence files; and acknowledged that her officers‟ actions were unlawful and "apologise[d] for any embarrassment, frustration and distress" in respect of a stop and search on 4 February 2010 that was based solely on the fact of his wrongful arrest.
[37] Commenting, Sabir said: "For more than 3 years, I have been fighting to clear my name and establish that the police were wrong to arrest me and put me through the tortuous experience I suffered at their hands.