Australian jury convicts man in meat grinder bomb plot of Etihad flight

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan (R) speaks to the media beside New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson at a press conference in Sydney on August 4, 2017. PETER PARKS / AFP/Getty Images

SYDNEY, Australia — An Australian jury has convicted a man of plotting to blow up an Etihad Airways airliner on a flight from Sydney to the United Arab Emirates with a bomb hidden in a meat grinder.

Khaled Khayat pleaded not guilty in the New South Wales state Supreme Court to conspiring to plan a terrorist act. The jury convicted him on Wednesday but has yet to decide whether his younger brother, Mahmoud Khayat, is also guilty of the same charge.

The plan involved detonating the bomb concealed in a meat grinder on a flight from Sydney on July 15, 2017, to the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi. But it was abandoned because the bomb was too heavy for carry-on luggage.

Khayat faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.

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