UK jails seven ‘al-Qaeda plotters’

Qaisar Shaffi was jailed for 15 years after he was convicted of conspiracy to murder after the month-long trial which ended earlier this week.

Abdul Aziz Jalil, Junade Feroze, Mohammed Bhatti, Nadeem Tarmohamed, Zia Ul Haq and Omar Abdur Rehman pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

 

They received between 15 and 26 year sentences.

 

‘Dedicated terrorist’

 

Barot was jailed last November after he admitted plotting synchronised attacks in Britain and the US which could have killed “hundreds if not thousands”.

 

He was convicted of planning attacks on buildings in London and the capital’s transport systems.

 

Possible targets included trains travelling to London’s Heathrow airport or an explosion on an underground train while in a tunnel under the Thames.

 

In the US, Barot planned to target the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, as well as the New York Stock Exchange, the Citigroup headquarters and the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey.

 

Butterfield said the seven defendants had helped a “determined and dedicated terrorist”.

 

He told the defendants the suffering their families would experience “is but a tiny fraction of the suffering that would have been experienced had your plans been translated into reality”.