Raw Story : Muslim convert sentenced to life for al-Qaeda plots

Muslim convert sentenced to life for al-Qaeda plots

dpa German Press Agency | November 7, 2006

London- An Islamic convert who turned a top al-Qaeda agent was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in London Tuesday for plotting to kill thousands of people in "spectacular" attacks in Britain and the United States. Dhiren Barot, a former Hindu who converted to Islam, would have to spend at least 40 years in jail for his plan to "cause carnage on a colossal and unprecedented scale," the presiding judge told Woolwich Crown Court in south London.

The 34-year-old defendant, from London, had planned to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the British capital and also plotted assaults on the World Bank in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange.

He had planned to detonate limousines filled with gas cylinders in underground car parks, the court was told.

Barot was also said to have plotted to detonate a bomb under the river Thames to flood the Underground (Tube) network and potentially drown hundreds of commuters.

Barot's 40-year minimum jail term is one of the toughest sentences ever handed down by a British judge, making the defendant not eligible for parole until he is 74 years old.

Barot was born in India in December, 1971, and came to Britain with his parents a year later.

He last worked as an airline ticket clerk in London before disappearing to Pakistan in for 1995, where he visited terrorist training camps, the court heard.

A "chilling" document retrieved from Barot's computer, seized in Pakistan in the summer of 2004, showed that he had planned to "inflict mass damage and chaos," the court heard.

Although the prosecution conceded that police had not found any evidence that materials had been acquired to carry out the plans, or that an attack was imminent, an attack was "likely to have happened at some stage."

Barot, who is also wanted by the US authorities over charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the US and in Yemen, had admitted conspiracy to murder.

He was placed under surveillance in April, 2004, following a tip-off from the intelligence authorities in Pakistan, and arrested in London in August, 2004.

Footage he took of his intended targets in the US and Britain were released by police Tuesday, showed that the attacks were planned "long before" the 9/11 attacks in America, the BBC said Tuesday.

The judge told Barot: "This was no noble cause. Your plans were to bring indiscriminate carnage, bloodshed and butchery first in Washington, New York and Newark, and thereafter the UK on a colossal and unprecedented scale."

British Home Secretary John Reid said the nature and severity of the sentence showed that the terrorist threat remained "very real and serious."

Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, said if Barot had succeeded in his aims, thousands would have died.

"Barot was a determined and experienced terrorist. He went to terrorist training camps in 1995, long before 9/11 or the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq," said Clarke.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency