A judge handed down life jail terms on Monday to five men convicted of plotting an al Qaeda bombing campaign in Britain, including one with links to the ringleader of the 2005 attacks in London.
Judge Michael Astill said the men were intent on causing "indiscriminate death and suffering" as he sentenced them at London's Central Criminal Court to a minimum of between 35 and 40 years behind bars. "You have betrayed this country that has given you every opportunity," he told them.
The head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorism unit, Peter Clarke, said the five were "trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists" who had links with al Qaeda. The five were among seven men alleged to have conspired to bomb a central London night-club and shopping centre, bring down a plane as well as hit gas and electricity supplies, killing hundreds in the process.
One of them also discussed trying to buy a radioactive "dirty bomb" from the Russian mafia to be "bigger than 9/11", but nothing appeared to have come from his enquiries, Britain's longest-running terrorism trial was told. But there were calls for a renewed inquiry after revelations that one of the convicted, Omar Khyam, boasted of working for al Qaeda's number three, Abdul Hadi, and who also had links to the London suicide bombers in 2005.
This information was kept from jurors during the year-long trial, for fear of prejudicing their deliberations. US authorities announced last Friday that Hadi, also known as Adbul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, had been captured and taken to the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp for security suspects in Cuba.
Home Secretary John Reid said the fight against terrorism was a "endless, continuous task", but added: "Very dangerous terrorists are now behind bars due to the efforts of our security services and our police." The seven accused were arrested on March 30, 2004 after more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser was discovered in a storage facility in west London.
Khyam, Anthony Garcia, 25, Jawad Akbar, 23, Waheed Mahmood, 35, and 32-year-old Salahuddin Amin were all convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life. Two of their co-defendants - Shujah Mahmood, 20, and 22-year-old Nabeel Hussain - were cleared of the same charge.
Khyam and Garcia were found guilty of possessing 600 kilograms of the chemical for terrorist purposes. Hussain, who faced the same charge, was cleared. Khyam was also convicted of possessing aluminium powder for terrorist purposes. Shujah Mahmood was cleared of that charge. All the men denied the charges.