Jurors at The Old Bailey heard that the men planned to use 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to make bombs targeted at crowded areas across the country, including nightclubs, shopping centres and power plants.
Omar Khyam, 25, from Crawley, West Sussex, was found guilty of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January 2003 and 31 March 2004.
Also convicted were Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 23, also of Crawley; Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire; Anthony Garcia, 24, of Barkingside, east London.
Khyam, Garcia and Mahmood will all serve a minimum of 20 years’ before they are considered for parole and Akbar and Amin both will serve a minimum of 17-and-a-half years’ before they are considered. If they are ever released, they will be on life licences.
Two other men, Nabeel Hussain, 22, of Horley, Surrey, and Shujah Mahmood, 20, from Crawley, were found not guilty on the conspiracy charge.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command and the National Coordinator of Terrorism Investigations, welcomed the news in a statement after the convictions.
“We are pleased that the overwhelming evidence presented to the Court against these men enabled the jury to reach their decision. “
Highlighting the struggle that the security industry has to contend with he continued, “There is always a balance to be struck between allowing terrorists to go ahead with their planning, so that we can gather evidence, and making sure the public are safe. We will never gamble with public safety.
“Everyone involved in Operation Crevice – Police, Security Service and Crown Prosecution Service, can be proud of their role in helping to stop a terrorist atrocity and gathering and presenting the evidence which has led to these convictions.”
The Home Secretary, John Reid, added, “Five dangerous terrorists are now behind bars thanks to the hard work of our police and security services. I want to thank the men and women in the police and security service who have worked extremely hard to ensure the perpetrators of this plot have been brought to justice and a major terrorist attack that could have killed and injured many people has been averted.
“The government has invested heavily in counter-terrorism over the last five years. The Security Service will have doubled in size by 2008 but it is important to remember that 100 per cent commitment can never guarantee 100 percent success. Today’s case reminds us all that the terrorist threat we face is real and severe.”
