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3 found guilty over liquid bomb plot

Posted 4 hours 42 minutes ago

Three members of an Islamist cell accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic aircraft with liquid explosives in 2006 have been found guilty by a court in London.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, described as the leader of the eight-man group, was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of conspiring to murder hundreds of people, as were two others, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain.

The trial considered charges that the men planned to smuggle the explosives in soft drink bottles on board aircraft flying from London's main Heathrow airport to North America.

The home-made devices would then have been set off in flight, causing carnage in the skies, prosecutors alleged during the three-and-a-half-month trial.

The men's arrest in August 2006 prompted new restrictions on carrying liquids on board aircraft from Britain, which had been on high alert since July 2005 suicide bombings which killed 52 people in London.

The travel security restrictions have since been eased.

During the trial, three of the defendants pleaded guilty to plotting explosions.

Seven admitted conspiracy to commit public nuisance by distributing Al Qaeda videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in Britain.

On Monday the jury failed to reach verdicts on four defendants: Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam. An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, was found not guilty on all counts.

The trial started in April, and the 12-person jury retired to consider their verdicts at the end of July.

Sentencing will be handed down at a later date.

Prosecutors alleged that the men plotted suicide attacks on at least seven flights from Britain to North America in a simultaneous attack of "truly global impact".

All eight defendants faced two charges of conspiracy to murder, with one charge specifying that the attacks would involve detonating improvised bombs on board commercial airliners between January 1 and August 11, 2006.

The men targeted seven flights from London's Heathrow airport; to New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal, the jury had heard.

They aimed to use hydrogen peroxide liquid explosives injected into plastic soft drinks bottles to cause "a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale", prosecutor Peter Wright told the trial.

They were "not long off" putting their plan into action and had talked of up to 18 different suicide bombers targeting seven or even more flights, operated by United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada, he said.

Summing up the case in July, a prosecutor said the eight accused wanted to achieve "immortality" and be "lionised" by other Islamic extremists for a deadly attack which would "shock the world".

Six of the defendants were found to have recorded suicide videos, apparently modelled on that left by the ringleader of the July 2005 bombings, Mohammad Sidique Khan.

All wore a similar black overcoat and traditional headscarf to Khan, speaking to camera in front of a black and white flag covered in Arabic script.

In one, plot leader Ali referred to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"Sheikh Osama warned you many times to leave our lands or you will be destroyed, and now the time has come for you to be destroyed," he said in the video shown during the trial.

"We will take our revenge and anger, ripping amongst your people and scattering the people and your body parts and your people's body parts responsible for these wars and oppression decorating the streets."