(Metropolitan Police/AP)
Abdulla Ahmed Ali recorded this video to be distributed after the bombs were detonated in mid-air
The guilty verdicts returned against the key figures in the airline plot trial at Woolwich Crown Court were greeted with relief in Whitehall yesterday.
This had become the court case that could not be allowed to fail. The courts had to show that juries could handle complex terrorism cases and vindication was needed for stringent security at airports.
The Government also required a public declaration — more than ever now, given the damage done by the release of the Lockerbie bomber — that Britain was not soft on terrorism.
Questions persist, however, about why it has taken three years and more than £50 million to bring Abdulla Ahmed Ali and the other bombers to justice.
first trial ended inconclusively a year ago with a jury acquitting one man portrayed by the Crown as a significant terrorist and failing to agree on whether or not the plan to blow up airliners had ever existed.That state of affairs could not be allowed to stand and a retrial began in March under a new judge who fired off repeated warnings to the media to report the case with great care. The evidence presented in both trials, including martyrdom videos recorded by six of the defendants, appeared overwhelming.
Ali had been under surveillance since late in 2005 when he was identified as a member of a circle of young British radicals gathered around a charismatic East London “missionary”, believed to be an al-Qaeda recruiter.
That man, who has been designated a terrorist by the United Nations but who lives freely in Britain, had connections with terrorist cells, including the group led by Muktar Said Ibrahim that tried to carry out suicide bombings in London on July 21, 2005.
Ali, 28, of Walthamstow, northeast London, was a frequent visitor to Pakistan, claiming to be engaged in charity work and earthquake relief. In reality he was attending training camps and receiving instruction in bombmaking.
When he returned to Britain after one lengthy trip in June 2006, counter-terrorism officers searched his hold luggage at Heathrow. They found a large quantity of batteries and packets of a high-sugar powdered drink known as Tang, both items regarded as useful in making bombs.
The intelligence judgment on Ali was that he had moved from being a fundraiser to being engaged in attack planning in Britain. The surveillance operation was stepped up and changes in his behaviour were noted.
He told friends that he and his wife, with whom he had a young son, were separating. That was the explanation he gave to borrow £138,000 in cash to buy a flat at 386a Forest Road, Walthamstow.
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