(top row left to right) Anzal Hussain, Mohammed Hasseen, Omar
Khan;
(bottom row left to right) Jewel Uddin, Mohammed Saud and Zohaib
Ahmed
A GANG of Islamic extremists who plotted to bomb an English Defence League
rally have been jailed for a total of almost 115 years.
They were caught driving to the protest with an arsenal of weapons including
guns, swords and two home-made bombs.
They planned to slaughter and maim members of the far-right protest group —
and hoped to provoke revenge attacks on Muslims, a court heard.
Jewel Uddin, 27, Omar Mohammed Khan, 31, Mohammed Hasseen, 24, Anzal Hussain,
25, Mohammed Saud, 23, and Zohaib Ahmed, 22, who are all from the West
Midlands, admitted planning the attack at an earlier hearing.
Today the six men were jailed for terms ranging from 18 years nine months to
19-and-a-half years each for their parts in the plot. They were told they
must serve at least two-thirds of their sentences behind bars with an extra
five years on licence.
Read more after cut...
EDL leader Tommy Robinson and his deputy Kevin Carroll called out “God save
the Queen” from the public gallery as sentence was passed.
Sobs could be heard from other observers, and shouts of “Allahu Akbar” — "God
is the greatest" in Arabic.
All of the men except Hasseen travelled to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, where an
EDL rally was taking place on June 30 last year.
But the gang’s plan failed because the rally had finished two hours before
they arrived at 4pm.
Khan and Uddin were stopped by chance as they drove home to Birmingham and
their Renault Laguna was impounded because of incorrect insurance details.
Two days later police found a deadly collection of weapons in the vehicle
including two shotguns, swords, knives, a nail bomb containing 458 pieces of
shrapnel, and a part-assembled pipe bomb.
The nail bomb was an 18-inch rocket stuffed with small pieces of metal and was
to be powered by explosives taken from at least two large fireworks.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said: “There is no reason to suppose that a further
attempt may not have been made in the future had the defendants not been
apprehended. I find it inconceivable that your resolve would have
evaporated.”
He went on: “You intended to engage in a violent confrontation with those
attending the EDL rally and use the weapons and the IED (improvised
explosive device) to cause serious injuries, and you anticipated that some
victims may have died.”
Innocent shoppers and passers-by would have been caught up in the carnage, the
court heard.
Prosecutors said that had the plot succeeded it could have sparked a
“tit-for-tat spiral of violence and terror”.
The judge added: “That is a particularly serious aspect of this case. That
simply cannot be an aspect of life in a society where the overwhelming
majority choose to live in harmony with their fellow men and women.”
As well as the weapons, the gang had 10 copies of a hate-filled note addressed
to the EDL which said: “O enemies of Allah! We have heard and seen you
openly insulting the final Messenger of Allah ... you should know that for
every action there is a reaction.
“Today is a day of retaliation (especially) for your blasphemy of Allah and
his Messenger Muhammad. We love death more than you love life. The penalty
for blasphemy of Allah and his Messenger Muhammad is death.”
Ahmed had been released on bail eight days before the planned attack after he
was arrested for possessing an al-Qaeda terror manual.
The judge said the gang had cooked up the plot after immersing themselves in "a
tide of freely available extremist material".
He said: “In this case, it can only have served to reinforce the defendants’
resolve to behave in the hideous way that was planned."
Earlier, prosecutor Bobbie Cheema QC told the court: “There can be little
doubt that a violent attack of the kind intended to be carried out would
have been bound to draw a response in revenge from its target and most
likely would have led to a tit-for-tat spiral of violence and terror.
"The defendants anticipated as much.”
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