JURIST - Paper Chase: UK court convicts 3 in 2006 airliner bomb plot

[JURIST] The UK Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday convicted three British Muslims [press release] for attempting to blow up transatlantic planes leaving London's Heathrow Airport [corporate website] in 2006. Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zahman [GlobalSecurity profiles] were part of a conspiracy to detonate liquid bombs hidden in soft drink bottles on airliners bound for the US and Canada. The plot was dismantled [JURIST report] after a raid carried out by the London Metropolitan Police Service [official website]. During the raid, the police discovered a digital tape containing the suicide videos relating to Savant, Khan and Zaman. All three claimed the videos were fake, and pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to causing a public nuisance at a previous trial in 2008. The Crown appealed the judgment. The men are scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.

A total of 24 men were arrested during UK raids in August 2006, and police charged 11 suspects [JURIST report] under the Terrorism Act 2006 and Terrorism Act 2000 [texts]—eight with conspiracy to commit murder and with preparing acts of terrorism, one with possession of articles useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism and two with failing to disclose information of material assistance in preventing an act of terrorism. In September, three men convicted of attempting to smuggle liquid explosives onto the airplanes were sentenced [JURIST reports] to life in prison by the London court.