British Muslim 'fanatic' jailed for life for soldier terror plot
LONDON, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) — An Islamist extremist who hatched a plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier and then publish the footage on the Internet was jailed for life on Monday.
Parviz Khan pleaded guilty to the plan, as well as supplying equipment to extremists in Pakistan and possessing documents "likely to be of use to a terrorist" at a hearing last month.
Sentencing of the 37-year-old and three other men, who admitted to charges linked to the conspiracy, had been adjourned until the conclusion of hearings involving two other defendants who had denied their involvement.
Judge Richard Henriques, sitting at Leicester Crown Court, east central England, told Khan -- a dual British-Pakistani national who refused to attend the hearings -- that he would serve at least 14 years behind bars.
He rejected his defence lawyer's claims that the plot was not well-advanced and a mixture of "fanaticism and fantasy", saying: "It's plain that you (Khan) were absolutely serious and determined to bring this plot to fruition.
"So rampant are your views, so excitable your temperament, so persuasive your tongue and so imbued with energy are you, it's quite impossible to predict when, if ever, it will be safe for you to be released into the public."
Prosecutors said Khan was at the centre of a "terrorist cell" in Birmingham, west central England, which shipped equipment to extremists based in Pakistan operating against coalition, including British forces, in Afghanistan.
Secret bugging by the security services of his home in the majority Muslim Alum Rock area overheard him say he wanted to kill the soldier "like a pig", then burn his body and parade his head on a stick, the court was told.
One of his co-defendants said Khan transformed from a Westernised British Asian who smoked, drank and went to nightclubs in his twenties into an anti-Western Islamist radical after visiting Pakistan.
The head of the British Army, General Richard Dannatt, said police and the security services had foiled a plot to commit such a "cowardly and grotesque attack against members of the army based solely on their religion."
Muslim soldiers in the British Army were playing a "vital role" in Iraq and Afghanistan, he added.
"I would like particularly to thank our Muslim soldiers for having the courage to stand up for what is right in the face of terrorism and intimidation," he said.
Following sentencing, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the plot showed that "terrorism does not discriminate and that the threat is faced by all our communities, regardless of political, faith or ethnic background."
Detective Superintendent Liam O'Brien, who led the police operation to arrest the men in January last year, said after sentencing: "I am convinced that this plot was, if not sponsored, then certainly supported by Al-Qaeda."
Basiru Gassama, a 30-year-old Gambian national living in Hodge Hill, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to failure to disclose information about the plot to the authorities.
He was jailed for two years, but would be released because he has already been in custody for 381 days, though he has been recommended for deportation.
Pakistan-born Mohammed Irfan, 31, of Ward End, Birmingham, and Morocco-born Hamid Elasmar, 44, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, both pleaded guilty to helping Khan supply equipment to Pakistan.
Irfan was jailed for four years and Elasmar to three years and four months.
Zahoor Iqbal, a 30-year-old school worker from Perry Barr, Birmingham, was found guilty of the same charge and jailed for seven years.
A sixth man, Amjad Mahmood, 32, from Alum Rock, Birmingham, was cleared of knowing about Khan's plan but failed to inform the authorities about it.
