A London jury found Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, guilty of being central figures in the foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas - attacks potentially deadlier than the July 7, 2005 explosions on subway trains and a bus which killed 52 commuters. Judge Richard Henriques told the men - who had been arrested in September 2011 - they will all face life in prison when sentences are imposed in April or May for plotting a major terrorist attack in Birmingham, a city of roughly 1 million people located 120 miles (nearly 200 kilometers) northwest of London. "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," he told them after the jury reached its verdict. "It's clear that you were planning a terrorist outrage in Birmingham." He addressed Naseer directly, calling him a "highly skilled bomb maker and explosives expert" who had tried to persuade his colleagues that it was "far preferable" to launch a terror attack inside Britain rather than fighting jihad abroad. Prosecutors said the men, fired up by the sermons of a U.S.-born al-Qaida preacher, hoped to cause carnage on a mass scale. Their plot was undone by mishaps with money and logistics, and ended in a police counterterrorism swoop in 2011.
3 British men convicted in terrorist bomb plot
3 British men convicted in terrorist bomb plot
Avrupa Times, Turkish British news for the Turkish Community in the world Avrupa Times, Turkish British news for the Turkish Community in the world
Headlines
Three young Muslims were convicted Thursday of plotting terrorist bombings that prosecutors said were intended to be bigger than the 2005 London transit attacks.
Paylaş: