Harrow 'terrorist' jailed 20 years

Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 27, was a part of an Al-Qaeda cell which planned to wreak havoc on the Heathrow Express, the London Underground and hotels in the capital.

The sleeper cell of seven men, which was centered around Al Qaeda 'General' Dhiren Barot, was jailed for a total of 136 years.

Bhatti, whose father is a retired engineer for Jaguar, had graduated in Systems Engineering at Brunel University.

He was studying a Phd course in Finite Element Modelling and Analysis at the time of his arrest.

He claims he was bullied at school and had no social life before he met the charismatic Barot - his only friend - at the university.

The seven Muslims, who all grew up in the UK, helped draw up plans to strike at America and the UK with synchronised explosions at iconic buildings.

They researched explosives and building structure, supplied Barot with false identities and money and acted as bodyguards and chauffeurs.

Barot, who is now serving a life sentence, also wanted to set off a radioactive 'dirty bomb' to cripple the country and cause billions of pounds of damage.

Mr Justice Butterfield described the plans as "cowardly" as he sentenced Bhatti for 20 years, Feroze for 22 years, Ul Haq for 18 years, Jalil for 26 years, Rehman for 15 years, Shaffi for 15 years and Tarmohamed for 20 years.

The judge said: "Barot was the instigator of this terrorist planning.

"He was by some considerable distance the principal in the conspiracy.

"Each of you was recruited by Barot and assisted him at his request.

"Sentencing must make plain to those of you who become involved in such cowardly plots that if convicted the consequences will inevitably be severe.

"I acknowledge that your wives, children and parents will suffer greatly as a consequence of the lengthy prison sentences but the suffering is but a tiny fraction of the suffering that would have been experienced had your plans been translated into reality.

"A loss of life on a massive scale would at least have been the possible consequence had this proposal been effected."

The gang will remain on licence for five years after their release to allow the authorities to 'keep an eye' on them, said Mr Justice Butterfield.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said: "Barot's plan was to murder innocent civilians by way of co-ordinated explosive attacks.

"Barot in his own words was intent on creating "another memorable black day for the enemies of Islam", a reference to the events of 9/11."

Barot, a Hindu-born Indian who converted to Islam in the early 1990s, was schooled in terrorism at training camps in Kashmir, Pakistan and the Phillippines between 1995 and 1999.

He began drawing up plans for spectacular attacks on the US more than a year before 9/11 and made his first reconnaissance trip to America in August 2000 with Nadeem Tarmohamed.

Barot returned to New York and Washington with Shaffi in March 2001, and the pair had coffee on top of the Twin Towers which were to be destroyed six months later.

In April 2001 Barot and Tarmohamed, who had flown out to replace the TB-stricken Shaffi, made a video of proposed targets in New York.

The shaky film footage focuses on the Twin Towers and one of the pair is heard making an explosion noise.

Barot's five chosen targets were International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup building, and the Prudential building in Newark.

One of the methods discussed included using hijacked petrol tankers or passenger jets.

Barot's plan was postponed after the success of 9/11 but in 2003 Barot decided to turn his attention to Britain.

One of his documents listed potential targets including the hotels The London Marriott, the Churchill Intercontinental and the Berkeley.

He recruited impressionable young men to his support team, with members specialising in architecture, IT and systems engineering.

The group were separately tasked to research technical information for the potential bombs and how to disable fire alarms.

Barot sent instructions to Feroze and Jalil by coded emails using the name kewl_n_kinki which pretended to be harmless teenage chat about girls and music.

Mr Laidlaw said: "They were amongst his trusted few. They were his support team. If Barot was the General, they were his lieutenants."

Barot and many of his team had been influenced by the lectures of extremist preachers like Abu Hamza.

Barot was identified by the Security Service in June 2004 and over the next six weeks surveillance was placed on all eight suspects.

They were all arrested on the same day, August 4, 2004, two weeks after the plan for the attacks were found on a laptop in Pakistan during an anti-terrorist operation.

A stash of material relating to the plot was found at Bhatti's home and garage in 78 Bolton Road, Harrow, Middlesex, including copies of his 'Gas Limos Project' and research papers.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the MPS Counter Terrorism Command and National Co-ordinator of Terrorist Investigations, said: "Dhiren Barot and his gang were determined terrorists who planned bombings on both sides of the Atlantic.

"We know Barot was the ringleader of this terrorist cell. However, he needed the help of the seven men who have been jailed today.

"Six of these men pleaded guilty to being willing participants in a plot which could have led to the deaths of many innocent people. Faced with the overwhelming evidence against them, they were left with little choice but to plead guilty.

"The plans for a series of co-ordinated attacks in the United Kingdom included packing three limousines with gas cylinders and explosives before setting them off in underground car parks. This could have caused huge loss of life. The plans to set off a dirty bomb in this country would have caused fear, panic and widespread disruption.

"The seven men jailed today were not the instigators of the planned attacks. But they were the planning team and were needed by Barot to contribute expertise in areas that he was lacking.

"They were the trusted few who researched, carried out reconnaissance and supported Barot. Each had a different role to play.

"Barot needed minders and drivers - people who could look after him as he carried out reconnaissance and conducted his meetings. He needed people to carry out research, gain access to specialist libraries, supply vehicles, false identities and travel documents, bank accounts, money and safe houses.

"These terrorists were skilled in anti-surveillance techniques, the use of coded messages and arranging secret meetings. Indeed, on one occasion Feroze and Jalil travelled literally hundreds of miles to use an internet café before returning to London to continue with their planning.

"The bulk of the evidence which shows the parts played by these men emerged not from surveillance but from enquiries carried out after they were arrested. There was painstaking examination of the mass of material found during searches. A huge amount of this material was on computers, some of it encrypted or deleted.

"The evidence in this case was obtained through close co-operation with the Security Service and our international partners. All parties involved in Operation Rhyme can be proud of the part they played in stopping this group before they could attack."