LONDON, 1 May 2007 — British justice issued a statement of intent against anyone thinking of perpetrating terrorist acts in the UK, when five men linked to Al-Qaeda were jailed for life yesterday at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of conspiring to bomb targets across Britain ranging from nightclubs to trains and a shopping center between Jan. 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004.
The men, who are all British citizens — Omar Khyam, 25; Jawad Akbar, 23; Salahuddin Amin, 32; Waheed Mahmood, 35; and Anthony Garcia, 24 — were jailed for life with little prospect of parole. The judge, Sir Michael Astill, told the conspirators: “You have betrayed this country that has given you every opportunity. All of you may never be released. It’s not a foregone conclusion.” The judge also imposed concurrent eight-year sentences for the charges relating to the possession of materials that could be used in causing explosions.
Two other co-accused, Nabeel Hussain and Shujah Mahmood, were found not guilty and released. Jurors were told that there were two other co-conspirators. One of them — Mohammed Junaid Babar, an American — admitted his role in the plot after being arrested by the FBI. In an unprecedented move in British judicial history, Babar turned state witness and testified against his co-plotters. The other co-conspirator, Mohammed Momin Khawaja, is awaiting trial in Canada.
The trial, which lasted 13 months, has been hailed as a success for the anti-terrorism policy of MI5, the security services; and the Metropolitan Police. It was one of the most comprehensive trials in British criminal history encompassing 3,644 statements by 105 prosecution witnesses. In fact, the jury at the Old Bailey took a record 27 days to return the verdict in what has been dubbed the “UK fertilizer bomb plot.”
The five were found guilty of planning to blow up the Bluewater Shopping Center in Kent, the “Ministry of Sound” nightclub in central London and the gas and electricity stations using fertilizer bombs. Other targets discussed included the Houses of Parliament and premiership football stadiums. The prosecution also revealed that the plotters met at least two of the 7/7 London suicide bombers, including their leader Mohammed Siddique Khan. The 7/7 bombs claimed the lives of 56 people including the four bombers who targeted the London bus and underground services.
The security services have come under fire for not taking this link seriously. In fact, Khan was effectively ignored even after the link to the above five was established, prompting a call for an independent inquiry into the link by both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, and one of the parents of the 7/7 victims, Graham Foulkes, so that “lessons could be learned.”
However, Home Secretary John Reid, while welcoming the sentences yesterday, ruled out an inquiry on the grounds that it would divert valuable resources from the real fight against terrorism. MI5’s new director general, Jonathan Evans, denied that the security services had been complacent. “The attack on July 7 in London was a terrible event. The sense of disappointment, felt across the service, at not being able to prevent the attack (despite our efforts to prevent all such atrocities) will always be with us. The security service will never have the capacity to investigate everyone who appears on the periphery of every operation.” The success of the trial is largely based on the testimony of Babar and the hours of surveillance evidence and recordings of bugged conversations involving the conspirators.
The conversations, which are available on the Internet, read like a mixture of youthful bravado, boastfulness and deadly intent. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism unit, warned that “this was not a group of youthful idealists. They were trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists who were obviously planning to carry out an attack against the British public.”
