An Iraqi doctor was jailed for 32 years on Wednesday after being found guilty of planning car-bomb attacks outside a nightclub in central London and at a packed Scottish airport a day later.
Bilal Abdulla (29) was convicted on Tuesday of being part of a small Islamist cell that had planned a series of spectacular bombings but turned to a dramatic suicide ram-raid attack on Glasgow Airport when their initial plans failed.
Abdulla, along with accomplice Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian engineer who died of injuries sustained in the Glasgow attack, wanted to punish the British people for their country’s role in Afghanistan and particularly Iraq, prosecutors said.
In the London attacks, the men tried to detonate two Mercedes cars packed with gas canisters, fuel containers and nails, which were left by a nightclub and a bus stop in the West End entertainment district in the early hours of June 29 2007.
The next day, the bombers drove a Jeep Cherokee, also packed with fuel containers and gas canisters, at speed into the international terminal at Glasgow Airport on what was its busiest day of the year.
Woolwich Crown Court heard the men wanted to commit murder and only failed because of bad luck and technical mistakes in making the bombs.
After the case, police said there was evidence more attacks had been planned.
”We believe that the bombs in London were to have been the first in a series of similar attacks,” the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner, John McDowall, said in a statement.
”Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed had at least two other vehicles and further supplies of gas, petrol and other items for constructing bombs.”
Abdulla, who was described as a ”dangerous man” by the judge during sentencing, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.
He had denied plotting to kill anyone and told the court he loved England and thought they were going to Glasgow to flee the country.
His co-accused, Jordanian doctor Mohammed Asha (28), was accused of providing guidance and funding for the attacks but was cleared of the charges.
He faces deportation, though in a statement read later by his lawyer outside the court said he will fight the case.
”All I want to do is put my life back together with my wife and child,” Asha’s lawyer said on his behalf.
”But the government continues to bully and punish me for something I did not do.” — Reuters