Jul 17, 2009, 16:44 GMT
London - A British man received a sentence of at least 10 years in prison on Friday for planning a suicide bombing in a Bristol shopping center in 2008.
'You were, in my judgment, a lonely and angry young person at the time of these events, with a craving for attention,' said the presiding judge during sentencing.
Isa Ibrahim, 20, was arrested in April 2008 following a tip to police, who uncovered explosives in his home. He was subsequently charged with making an explosive with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property and other charges related to planning an attack.
The case has received significant media attention because Ibrahim is a recent convert to Islam.
Born with the given name Andrew Philip Michael, he was the son of a hospital consultant. He received a British public school education, but reportedly became radicalized after converting to Islam and studying Islamic fundamentalism.
Ibrahim has repeatedly denied the attacks, saying he simply wanted to create the explosive vest so he could film its detonation for the YouTube video sharing website. Furthermore, he said he thought suicide bombing was wrong and against the tenets of the Muslim faith.
He was convicted by a jury of four women and eight men after six days of deliberations and a trial in which they were told that Ibrahim had described the United Kingdom as 'dirty toilet' and justified the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington because of US and British aggression toward Muslims.
Upon his arrest in 2008, authorities discovered a container full of the same kind of explosives used in the July 7, 2005 subway attacks in London in his one-bedroom apartment. They also found an electrical circuit that could be used for short-range detonation and a half-made suicide vest.
He had also conducted internet searches on making explosives from household products.
They said his attack would have targeted the Broadmead shopping centre in Bristol.
Ibrahim was arrested on a tip from the local Muslim community.
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SP4: how about assisted suicide?Jul 17th, 2009 - 17:31:07
...heck, bring hin to oregon, strap it on him, put him in a gravel pit and he can do it all for us! Legal in every county!
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