LONDON: A UK court on Thursday convicted three British Muslims of plotting terrorist attacks that prosecutors said would have been deadlier than 2005 attacks on London’s public transport network.
The 31-year-old Irfan Naseer, while Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, were found guilty by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court in south London of being central figures in a foiled plot to blow up eight rucksack bombs and possibly other timed devices in crowded places.
The three men, all from Birmingham, central England, had denied charges of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts during their trial at the court.
Karen Jones, specialist counter-terrorism prosecutor, said after the verdict that “The evidence we put to the court showed the defendants discussing with awe and admiration the attacks of 9/11 and 7/7.”
“These terrorists wanted to do something bigger, speaking of how 7/7 had ‘gone a bit wrong’,” Jones said in her statement.
The men will be sentenced at a later date.
Judge Richard Henriques warned them to expect sentences of life in prison, the Press Association (PA) reported from court.
“You were seeking to recruit a team of somewhere between six and eight suicide bombers to carry out a spectacular bombing campaign, one which would create an anniversary along the lines of 7/7 or 9/11,” the PA quoted Henriques as telling Naseer, one of the convicted.
DND
