Liquid bomb plot

Three guilty of liquid bomb terror plot

Islamist extremists' conspiracy to murder Britons using bombs disguised as soft drinks led to airport security crackdown
Assad Sarwar, Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Tanvir Hussain
Assad Sarwar, Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Tanvir Hussain. Photograph: Metropolitan police/AP

Three British men were today convicted of conspiracy to murder following a terrorism inquiry that led to sweeping airport restrictions.

Ringleaders Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, of Walthamstow, east London and Assad Sarwar, 28, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, were found guilty alongside Tanvir Hussain, 27, from Leyton, east London.

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said after today's convictions that, by disrupting the plans of the three men, police and security services had saved "countless lives".

The men were among eight accused by prosecutors of plotting to kill more than 1,500 people by smuggling liquid explosives aboard transatlantic planes and detonating them in mid-air.

But the jury did not find any of the defendants guilty of conspiracy to murder on aircraft.

Mohammed Gulzar, 27, from Barking, east London, who was the third alleged ringleader, was cleared of all offences. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on any of the conspiracy to murder charges for the four remaining men.

The Woolwich crown court jury heard that Ali, Sarwar and Hussain had pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions in a series of small-scale, headline-grabbing bomb attacks.

The three admitted plotting to detonate a small device at Heathrow's terminal three because it was used by several US airlines. They had earlier aborted plans to explode a home-made bomb at the Houses of Parliament due to the tight security at Westminster.

Sarwar and Ali claimed the bombs were not intended to hurt anyone but were a "publicity stunt", designed to draw attention to a YouTube documentary highlighting injustices in the Middle East.

The jury rejected Ali's claims he did not plan to kill or hurt anyone in the blasts.

Prosecutors said his gang considered national infrastructure targets, including gas terminals and oil refineries. Evidence revealed Canary Wharf, the Bacton gas terminal pipeline, various airports, the electricity grid and internet providers were studied.


They believe a mystery al-Qaida bomb-maker was responsible for the liquid bomb design, concealed within 500ml Oasis or Lucozade bottles. Surveillance teams watched Ali on his return to Britain as he assembled his terror cell, gathered materials and identified targets.

Undercover officers looked on as the unemployed former shop worker used cash to purchase a £138,000 second-floor flat in Forest Road, Walthamstow. They planted a secret bug that revealed it was converted into a bomb factory where Ali met others to construct the bombs.

The flat was also used as a location for Ali and others to record "martyrdom" videos threatening further attacks against the west. In his video Ali warned the British public to expect "floods of martyr operations" that would leave body parts scattered in the streets.

On his arrest, he was found carrying what was alleged to be an elaborate and damning blueprint for the airline plot scrawled in a battered pocket diary. Airport security arrangements and details of flights, including seven highlighted services to the US, were discovered on a computer memory stick in another pocket.

Ali, Sarwar and Hussain had earlier admitted conspiring to cause public nuisance, a charge also admitted by Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, north London; Umar Islam, 30, aka Brian Young, of Plaistow, east London; and Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, and Waheed Zaman, 24, both of Walthamstow.

In a statement the Crown Prosecution Service said: "The prosecution is considering a request for a retrial in respect of the plot to blow up airliners against all seven men upon which the jury could not agree."

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for more than 50 hours at the end of the trial, which began in April. Sentencing will take place at a later date.

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