International   

Plan for retrial plea in U.K. terror case

LONDON: In a setback to British intelligence agencies, a jury on Tuesday threw out their claim that a group of men of Pakistani origin, arrested in August 2006, planned to blow up U.S.-bound flights taking off from Heathrow airport, with the aim of killing hundreds of people.

However, it found three men — Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain — guilty of a massive terrorist conspiracy to murder using home-made bombs. The trio — two from East London and the other from Buckinghamshire — were among the eight men arrested following the discovery of the alleged plot in 2006, sparking a nation-wide alert and enhanced security measures at airports and on planes, including a ban on carrying liquid on board.

During their trial, the trio admitted to conspiring to cause explosions, but denied that they wanted to kill anyone. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, the alleged ringleader, and Assad Sarwar claimed they just wanted to draw attention to their anger over British foreign policy by causing a small explosion in Parliament.

The explosion would not have hurt anyone, they claimed. They also admitted to planning to make videos threatening to cause bomb explosions in places like airports and gas terminals to highlight the “injustices” against Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

In a chilling account, however, the prosecution told the court the men planned to blow up at least seven planes simultaneously by exploding home-made bombs disguised as soft drinks and to “murder as many civilian passengers as possible upon as many civilian aircraft as possible.”

The alleged plot, according to the police, was inspired by the Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and could have caused unprecedented casualties.

The Woolwich Crown Court heard the suspects were “prepared to kill and to do so on a wholly indiscriminate basis, irrespective of age, belief, sex and to do so without the slightest blink of an eye.”

But the jury, which deliberated for more than 50 hours, did not find any of the defendants guilty of conspiring to target aircraft. A disappointed and embarrassed Crown Prosecution Service indicated it might ask for a retrial, saying the case was “still the subject of ongoing proceedings and the prosecution is considering a request for a retrial in respect of the plot to blow up airliners.”

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Zardari vows to fight terrorism
South Ossetia, Abkhazia get security cover
Thai PM disqualified
Plan for retrial plea in U.K. terror case
Pitched battle in Sri Lanka
Historic, says Sri Lanka
Nepal President to unveil policies
Bush orders modest Iraq troop cut
Kuwait completes amnesty formalities Gulf Round-up
2 Indians on Man Booker shortlist
KFC shores up security for secret chicken recipe

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu