Life terms for British Muslims in al-Qaeda-linked plot (Roundup)

Apr 30, 2007, 22:40 GMT

This undated file picture made available by the Metropolitan Police Authority on 30 April 2007, shows a front view of a bag of the 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser. Five British Muslims with alleged links to al-Qaeda were Monday given life sentences for planning \'mass murder\' in a series of major bomb attacks. EPA/METROPOLITAN POLICE HANDOUT

London - Five British Muslims with alleged links to al-Qaeda were Monday given life sentences for planning 'mass murder' in a series of major bomb attacks in Britain even before the 2005 suicide bombings on London's transport network that killed 52 people and injured more than 700.

Evidence presented at the 13-month jury trial at London's Old Bailey Criminal Court revealed that the men had links to two of the July 7, 2005 bombers, dismissed at the time by British intelligence as 'peripheral.'

The sentencing Monday sparked fresh calls for a public inquiry into the suicide bombings on underground trains and a bus in London, by the main opposition parties and relatives of those who died.

But Home Secretary John Reid, while acknowledging the 'hurt and anguish' that had been caused to the families of the 7/7 attacks by the trial's conclusion, rejected a fresh inquiry.

'It would occupy the time of the police and the security services at a time when they are already stretched,' Reid told parliament.

The five Britons, who were given sentences of between 35 and 40 years at least, had planned to kill 'hundreds' of people in fertilizer bomb attacks on a main shopping centre, a nightclub, parliament, a football stadium and London's power and water supply network, the court heard.

According to audio evidence obtained by the intelligence services in a major surveillance operation, the men wanted to stage attacks in Britain which were 'bigger than 9/11,' referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

The jury trial, which cost 50 million pounds (100 million dollars), was billed as the longest and most expensive in the history of British terrorism trials.

It emerged after sentencing that, as a result of the discovery of the terror cell in March, 2004, British intelligence was able to foil a plot to shoot down a passenger jet over the Atlantic in 2006.

The jury found Omar Khyam, 26, guilty of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January 2003 and 31 March 2004. He would have to serve at least 40 years in jail, the judge ruled.

Waheed Mahmood, 34, Jawad Akbar, 23, Salahuddin Amin, 31, and 24- year-old Anthony Garcia were also given life terms, having to serve between 35 and 40 years.

The judge, Michael Astill, warned the defendants that it was by no means certain that they would ever leave prison.

'It may be that some or all of you will never be released and there must be no misunderstanding about it,' he said. 'You have betrayed the country that has given you every opportunity.'

The court heard that the fertilizer bomb plot linked back to 'senior al-Qaeda figures' in Pakistan and Afghanistan and that some of the plotters had received weapons training in a remote mountain area of Pakistan.

One of the defendants had given himself up to the police in Pakistan.

Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism chief, said there was 'no doubt' that the men, who had been heard praising the 2004 Madrid train bombings, had been planning 'mass murder' on a scale that would have been 'completely new' to Britain.

'They were involved in an international conspiracy, and the evidence showed that they would not balk at killing as many people as they could,' said Clarke.

Britain's MI5 intelligence service Monday rejected charges that it had been 'complacent' in following up the 2004 link between the plotters and the two leaders of the 2005 London attacks, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.

'The Security Service will never have the capacity to investigate everyone who appears on the periphery of every operation,' said MI5 chief Jonathan Evans.