Abdullah Ahmed Ali

This article may contain material from Wikipedia An article on this subject has been redirected to another page on WP: Abdullah Ahmed Ali Current versions of the GNU FDL article on Wikipedia may contain information useful to the improvement of this article

WP R E D

Ahmed Abdullah Ali or Abdulla Ahmed Ali (born 10 October 1980) was convicted for his connection to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot (WP) in the United Kingdom, and one of the nineteen whose accounts were frozen by the Wikipedia:Bank of England.

According to the BBC Wikipedia:Scotland Yard were interviewing Ahmed over plans to use soft drink bottles to smuggle liquid explosive onto a plane.

This article contains content from Wikipedia An article on this subject has been nominated for deletion on Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/ Abdul Muneem Patel Current versions of the GNU FDL article on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article

WP+ NO DEL

Charges

The charges were:

On diverse days between 1 January 2006 and 10 August 2006 within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court conspired with other persons to murder other persons (contrary to Section 1 (1) of the Wikipedia:Criminal Law Act 1977). On diverse days between 1 January 2006 and 10 August 2006 within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court with the intention of committing acts of terrorism engaged in conduct to give effect to their intention to smuggle the component parts of improvised explosive devices onto aircraft and assemble and detonate them on board (contrary to Section 5 (1) of the Wikipedia:Terrorism Act 2006).

In his defense he claimed he was merely planning a small explosion to draw attention to a documentary he was making to protest against western foreign policy.

He was found guilty on September 8, 2009 of conspiring to kill hundreds of members of the public in a terrorist bombing campaign.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court found that he was the leader of an east London al-Qaeda-inspired terror cell. He and his co-defendants, Assad Sarwar, 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27, admitted plotting a series of small-scale headline-grabbing bomb attacks. The jury rejected his claims he did not plan to kill or hurt anyone in the blasts.

Background

His parents moved to UK in the 1960s from Pakistan. He has four brothers and three sisters. In the 1980s the family returned to Wikipedia:Pakistan for six years before returning to east London in 1987.

Since his teens he had been involved with Wikipedia:Tablighi Jamaat.

In court, he mentioned seeing images of "concentration camps" in Wikipedia:Bosnia when he was 15 or 16 and being "aware they were Muslims". In his Wikipedia:martyrdom videoTemplate:Citation needed, he said that he had aspired to be a martyr since the age of 15.

He studied computer systems engineering. At university he became politically active, joining demonstrations and handing out leaflets. After graduating he worked as a volunteer with an Islamic charity in east London. In January 2003 he travelled to a refugee camp for Afghans in Pakistan.

According to newspaper reports, Ahmed Abdullah Ali is married to Wikipedia:Cossor Ali. He has one baby son. It has been suggested that his brother is Wikipedia:Assan Abdullah Khan.

Surveillance teams watched him on his return to Britain as he assembled his terror cell, collected materials and identified targets (Wikipedia:Canary Wharf, the Wikipedia:Bacton Gas Terminal, various airports, the electricity grid and internet providers).

As an unemployed former shop worker, he used cash to purchase a £138,000 second-floor flat in Forest Road, Wikipedia:Walthamstow. A secret bug revealed it was converted into a bomb factory where he met others to construct the bombs. The flat was also used by him and others to record suicide videos threatening further attacks against the West. In the video, he warned the British public about “floods of martyr operations” that would leave body parts scattered in the streets.

He was seen shopping for clamps, drills, syringes, glue and latex gloves. Inside his purchased flat, officers found batteries, filaments, plastic bottles and large amounts of Tang, a high-sugar drink powder. They also witnessed bomb-making experiments using liquid explosives in soft drink bottles.

He was observed using public phone boxes, mobile phones and anonymous Wikipedia:e-mail accounts to keep in touch with mystery terrorist organisers in Pakistan.

On his arrest, he was found with an elaborate and damning blueprint for the plot, inscribed in a battered pocket diary. Airport security arrangements and details of flights, including the seven highlighted services, were found on a computer memory stick in one of his pockets.

Monday, 14 September 2009 The airliner bomb plotters were jailed for life for planning what judge Mr Justice Henriques said was an atrocity comparable with the September 11 attacks. British-born ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali was told he would serve a minimum of 40 years for his role in "the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within this jurisdiction".

Accomplices Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were also given life sentences. Sarwar was told he would serve a minimum of 36 years. Hussain will serve a minimum of 32 years. The al Qaida-inspired terror cell planned to detonate home-made liquid bombs on flights bound for major North American cities. Ali, of Walthamstow, east London, was found guilty along with Sarwar and Hussain last week at Woolwich Crown Court of conspiracy to murder on a mass scale following the largest-ever counter-terrorism operation in the UK. Mr Justice Henriques said: "The intention was to perpetrate a terrorist outrage that would stand alongside the events of September 11, 2001 in history." The judge added that the airline bomb plot had "reached an advanced stage in its development". He said the men had "sufficient chemicals for 20 home-made detonators of commercial strength". "I'm satisfied that there is every likelihood that this plot would have succeeded but for the intervention of the police and the security service," he said. Referring to a video of a mock explosion on board an airliner, Mr Justice Henriques said: "I could only conclude the chance of an aircraft surviving such an explosion at altitude was remote. Had this conspiracy not been interrupted, a massive loss of life would almost certainly have resulted - and if the detonation was over land, the number of victims would have been even greater still." The judge said the emails at the centre of the retrial - which were unavailable to prosecutors in the first trial last year - "are a vital source of information as to the control, progress and scope of this conspiracy". "They establish beyond question the ultimate control of this conspiracy lay in Pakistan." He said others in Pakistan controlled, monitored and funded the plot. Ali, Sarwar, from High Wycombe, Bucks, and Hussain, from Leyton, east London, were "high-level executives within this country", the judge added. Mr Justice Henriques told Ali: "I have concluded you are a driven and determined extremist with boundless energy and an ambition to lead a terrorist outrage of boundless proportion. By this conspiracy you sought the attention of the world, and you now have it."

Timeline

2003-06 Long stays in Pakistan

2005 Surveillance initiated because of said links to extremists in East London, including Wikipedia:Muktar Said Ibrahim.

July 20, 2006 Flat purchased for £138,000 cash.

10 August 2006 Suspect arrested by British authorities.

11 August 2006 Assets are frozen by the Bank of England and name published.

21 August 2006 Appearance at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. Charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism.

4 September 2006 Appearance in court via a video link from Belmarsh Prison before the Old Bailey. Remanded in custody for 2 weeks.

18 September 2006 Appearance in court via a video link from Belmarsh Prison before the Old Bailey. Remanded in custody until 27 October.

27 October 2006 Scheduled court appearance. The trial was a mistrial due to the inadmisibility of evidence from the USA NSA.

18 May 2007 Defendant pleads not guilty to the charges. Trial due to begin April 2008.

April 3, 2008 The trial of the eight men begins at Woolwich crown court

8 September 2009 Three suspects found guilty of conspiring to kill hundreds of people in a terrorist bombing campaign. The rest of the men charged were released without any conviction.

14 September 2009 Ahmed Abdullah Ali sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in jail. His two accomplices, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, were sentenced to a minimum of 36 and 32 years jail respectively.

See also

• Wikipedia:Al-Qaeda involvement in Europe
• Wikipedia:2006 transatlantic aircraft plot