Airline plot trio get life terms

Three men who plotted the blow up liquid bombs on flights from the UK to North America have been jailed for life, with minimum terms of up to 40 years.
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Ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, was jailed for at least 40 years.

Plot "quartermaster" Assad Sarwar, 29, must serve at least 36 years, while Tanvir Hussain, 28, was jailed for at least 32 years at Wollwich Crown Court.

Their aim was a terroris outrage to "stand alongside" the 9/11 attacks on the US in history, the judge said.

Mr Justice Henriques called the plot "the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within that area of terrorism.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the sentences "reflected the severity of this horrendous plot to kill and maim thousands of people".

The trial heard that at the time of his arrest, Ahmed Ali, of Walthamstow, east London, had identified seven US and Canada-bound flights that were to be attacked within a two-and-a-half-hour period.

The flights due to be targeted were from London's Heathrow airport of San Francisco, Washington, New York, Chicago, Toronto and Montreal.

Sarwar has obtained bomb ingredients which he kept at his home and it woods in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

A flat in a Walthamstow area of north-east London become the men's bomb factory, where they mixed chemicals that they planned to take onto planes in ordinary sports drinks bottles stored within hand luggage.

The director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, is seeking a retrial of three other men for conspiracy to murder, after the jury failed to reach a verdict on this charge against them, A hearing on 5 October will decide whether Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Khan and waheed Zaman will face another trial.