This is an outrage of the first order.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/14/former-soldier-faces-prosecution-for-fighting-against-isisIt's also utterly illogical. How can a man who is fighting as part of Kurdish ground forces that are receiving air support of Royal Air Force jets, training from US special forces and weapons from Germany, be considered as a supporter of terrorism?
Our Kurdish brothers and sisters of the YPG are not terrorists, they are heroes who have been part of a broader Kurdish fight against decades of oppression; first in defence of their villages during Saddam Hussein's racist war of genocide against the Kurds. Then later against Sunni fundamentalists (many of whom were dregs of the Ba'athist regime) of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and of course also Turkey and particularly the more recent theocratic madmen of Erdogan and his AKP Party.
Furthermore, this charge seems to be extremely legally dubious. He is charged under section 6 of the Terrorism Act 2006, which outlaws giving training that will be used to support etc etc acts of terror. Section 20 of that act defines acts of terror as being acts taken for the purposes of terror, as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000 with particular reference to section 1(5).
Section 1(5) of the Terrorism Act 2000 defines an act of terror as encompassing acts for the benefit of a proscribed (banned) organisation. The YPG is not a proscribed organisation under the UK law. The PKK is, but the YPG is not.
The earlier subsection of section 1 defines acts of terror as serious violence, serious damage to property, endangerment of life, disruption of electronic systems etc etc
where the act is designed to;
(1) Influence the government [or an international governmental organisation] or intimidate the public or a section of the public,
and(2) done for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause
It's hard to see how the YPG's acts would meet the first limb (s(1)(b), influencing the government); the YPG's acts of violence are not undertaken to influence the UK government, or intimidate the public or a section of the public.
Anyway, boo to the CPS! There was pressure from "certain sections" of the community to charge those fighting for the Kurds because they said it was "unfair" and "one-sided" if those who were fighting for ISIS, Al-Qaeda and various Islamist groups (some of which enjoyed mainstream support within certain communities within the UK) were charged while those who were joining groups fighting these Islamist groups were not. This is pandering; we should not be bashful about saying Islamist groups are bad, and the Kurdish YPG and Pesh are good.