Trio guilty of transatlantic terror plot
Three men convicted of terror plot to detonate flights above Atlantic
Also In The News
|
By James Christie
Kim Clijsters might have only just come out of a two-year period of retirement but she tonight proved that she has not lost the useful art of defeating the formidable Venus Williams. |  |
Monday, 07, Sep 2009 06:19
By Matthew Champion.
Three men have been found guilty of a plot to detonate passenger jets over the Atlantic in a series of suicide attacks that could have killed thousands.
Jurors convicted ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, of conspiracy to activate bombs disguised as soft drinks.
Two other men from the same al-Qaida-linked cell in London, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, were also found guilty of the same offence.
A host of verdicts came through from Woolwich crown court on Monday afternoon in what is one of the longest and most complicated counterterrorism inquiries in UK history.
The uncovering of the plot, likened to a second 9/11, led to a raft of new restrictions at UK airports, including a ban on taking liquids into cabins.
Last September Ali, from Walthamstow, north London, Hussain, from Leyton, east London, and Sarwar, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, were all convicted on a lesser charge of conspiracy to cause explosions, but a second jury of nine women and three men today ruled a specific plot did exist.
Ali had planned to blow up seven flights midair between the UK and North America that departed within two and a half hours of each other.
It is estimated that the death-toll from the destruction of seven packed flights during the summer holiday season could have led to a higher death-toll than the September 11th 2001 terror attacks.
The bombers planned to seal an explosive mixture inside soft drinks bottles and smuggle them on board in hand luggage alongside detonators hidden in disposable cameras.
Tests conducted by explosive experts, videos of which were shown to jurors in court, showed the bombs had the power to blow a gaping hole in a plane's fuselage.
Home secretary Alan Johnson commented: "This case reaffirms that we face a real and serious threat from terrorism.
"This was a particularly complex and daring plot which would have led to a terrible attack resulting in major loss of life.
"The police, security services and CPS have done an excellent job in bringing these people to justice."
The three convicted men had all claimed they were planning a political stunt and not intended to kill anyone, despite the emergency of 'suicide' videos where they discussed the plot.
Four other men, deemed "foot soldiers" by the prosecution, were today cleared of direct involvement in the plot.
Ibrahim Savant, 28, of Stoke Newington, north London; Arafat Waheed Khan, 28, of Walthamstow; Waheed Zaman, 25, of Walthamstow; and Donald Stewart-Whyte, 23, of High Wycombe were all found not guilty of conspiracy to activate bombs disguised as soft drinks.
But jurors returned no verdict for Umar Islam, 31, of Plaistow, east London. He was however found guilty of an alternative charge, unrelated to the airline plot, of conspiracy to murder.
The jury was also undecided on this charge for Ibrahim Savant, while Donald Stewart-Whyte was cleared of both charges.
Ali, Hussain and Sarwar will be sentenced next Monday.
Sue Hemming, head of the crown prosecution service's counterterrorism division, said the three men were guilty of planning a "calculated and sophisticated plot to create a terrorist plot of global proportions".
"Today's convictions are the culmination of months of collaboration between the CPS counterterrorism division, the Metropolitan police and the security services," she said.
Ms Hemming added that the CPS would consider another retrial for the defendants that the jurors could not return a verdict for.