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Three guilty of airline bomb plot | Three guilty of airline bomb plot |
(11 minutes later) | |
Three men have been found guilty of plotting to blow up planes above the Atlantic with home-made liquid bombs. | Three men have been found guilty of plotting to blow up planes above the Atlantic with home-made liquid bombs. |
A jury convicted ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as drinks. | A jury convicted ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as drinks. |
Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, were also found guilty of the same charge at Woolwich Crown Court. | Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, were also found guilty of the same charge at Woolwich Crown Court. |
The verdicts follow one of the UK's longest terror inquiries. The men's arrests in 2006 led to airport restrictions on liquids. | The verdicts follow one of the UK's longest terror inquiries. The men's arrests in 2006 led to airport restrictions on liquids. |
Ali, Hussain and Sarwar were previously found guilty of conspiracy to murder involving liquid bombs - but that jury could not decide whether their plans extended to detonating the devices on planes. | Ali, Hussain and Sarwar were previously found guilty of conspiracy to murder involving liquid bombs - but that jury could not decide whether their plans extended to detonating the devices on planes. |
Now a second jury has decided that such a terror plot did exist. | Now a second jury has decided that such a terror plot did exist. |
With thousands killed in the air and on the ground, the explosions could have caused more devastation than the September 11 attacks. | |
Bomb factory | |
The court was told MI5 officers uncovered the plotters as they followed cells of extremists in London. | |
The jury heard that, at the time of the men's arrest in August 2006, Ali had identified seven flights leaving from Heathrow to North American cities. | |
Sarwar, meanwhile, was described as the plot's "quartermaster", securing bomb ingredients from his home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. | |
A flat in the Walthamstow area of east London became the bomb factory, where the men put together a special mixture of chemicals. | |
They planned to take this mixture, sealed in ordinary sports drinks bottles, on board flights in hand luggage. | |
The men told the court that they had been planning a political stunt, including small explosions only intended to frighten people at airports. |