Britons get life for plotting al Qaeda attacks

Five Britons were jailed for life Monday for plotting al Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks on targets across the UK.

Izvor: Reuters

Tuesday, 01.05.2007.

10:10

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Britons get life for plotting al Qaeda attacks

"The sentences are for life. Release is not a foregone conclusion. Some or all of you may never be released," judge Michael Astill said at London's Old Bailey court.

"We were deceived," said Jacqui Putnam, who was on board an underground train blown up on July 7.

"We were told that these four characters were not affiliated with al Qaeda and were working entirely independently. We were told that, when it was known that they weren't -- because they had been under surveillance."

Counter-terrorism experts said the gang could have produced a "formidable weapon" more powerful than some of the devices used in devastating attacks around the world in recent years.

"There is no doubt at all the carnage would have been immense," London's anti-terrorism chief Peter Clarke told Reuters. "I have no doubt at all they are clearly linked straight into the heart of al Qaeda."

Prosecutors said the men only needed to decide on a target when they were arrested in 2004 before carrying out what would have been the first homegrown attack by Islamic militants.

After the longest terrorism trial in British history, the men -- Omar Khyam, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar, Waheed Mahmood and Salahuddin Amin -- were found guilty of plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.

"You are considered cruel, ruthless misfits by society," said the judge as he passed sentence.

Two other suspects were cleared of all charges.

The conspiracy, dubbed the "British Bomb Plot" by U.S. officials, was said by prosecutors to be truly international.

Training was carried out at camps in Pakistan; technical help with detonators was provided by Canadian Momin Khawaja.

The chief prosecution witness was U.S. militant turned informant Mohammed Babar, a self-confessed al Qaeda supporter who set up the camps but testified against his co-conspirators.

Babar agreed to give evidence as part of a plea bargain negotiated in 2004 after he admitted a number of terrorism offences in New York.

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