3 British Muslims convicted by UK court, get jail term for terror offences
London: Three British Muslims believed to be of Pakistani origin are facing lengthy jail terms after being found guilty of terrorism charges by a UK court on Wednesday.
Mohibur Rahman, Khobaib Hussain and Naweed Ali – who branded themselves as "The Three Musketeers"- were part of a terror cell which was busted after Britain's MI5 spies bugged Ali's car and discovered a pipe bomb and meat cleaver hidden in a sports bag in raids in the West Midlands region of England in August 2016.
All the three, aged between 25 and 33 and believed to be of Pakistani origin, were on trial for plotting a terrorist attack on a military or police target in Britain.
They were convicted of one count of preparing for acts of terrorism under Section 5 of the UK's Terrorism Act 2006 following a 23-week trial at the Old Bailey court in London.
Besides a half-made pipe bomb and a meat cleaver, other items found in Ali's bag included an air pistol imitation hand gun with an empty magazine taped to the side of it, 11 more shotgun cartridges, a live unfired 9mm bullet, a roll of gaffer tape and a pair of black latex gloves.
It had emerged during the course of the trial that Britain's security services and police officers had set up a fake courier company last year to gather evidence on the suspects as part of a counter-terrorism operation.
MI5 and West Midlands Police officers created Hero Couriers while an undercover police officer, known only as "Vincent", posed as the boss of the delivery company in Birmingham.
As part of the elaborate operation, officers hired premises in central Birmingham and drivers, who were given T-shirts with the Hero Couriers logo on them.
Vincent then hired 25-year-old Hussain, paying him 100 pounds a day to deliver luggage to UK airports and other sites around the country.
Hussain was then tracked communicating with his other terror cell members using encrypted social media messaging service Telegram and met them at restaurants and parks to avoid detection.
They used a Musketeers image from the Disney cartoon as a logo for their messages, which included preparations for a knife attack similar to the attack in London Bridge in June that claimed eight lives.
The trio claimed in court that the evidence was planted by the undercover officer Vincent, but they were unanimously found guilty by a jury.
The jury is still deliberating on a verdict for a fourth suspect 38-year-old Tahir Aziz who allegedly bought a samurai sword from a sex shop for the terror cell.
Husssain and Ali had already been convicted of terrorist offences after they pleaded guilty to going to terror training camps in Pakistan in 2012.
