A terrorist who enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University to get his visa has been jailed for 40 years in America.
Abid Naseer planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre and kill fleeing survivors.
He was suspected of plotting terror attacks in Manchester, New York and Denmark and a jury heard that he may have examined Liverpool One shopping centre as a potential target.
Pakistani-born Naseer was found guilty in March of providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support and conspiracy to use a destructive device.
Sentencing of terrorist Abid Naseer. Police raid his home on Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham Hill
The 28-year-old briefly enrolled at Liverpool John Moores and was one of 12 men originally arrested in April 2009 in counter-terrorism raids in Liverpool and Manchester.
He was extradited from his home in the UK in 2013 accused of being part of an al-Qaeda plot to bomb western targets including the US.
Following his sentence, police revealed his plot involved blowing up a car that was to be parked just 100 metres from the spot where the IRA detonated a lorry bomb in 1996.
Naseer’s accomplices were due to lie in wait by the Arndale Centre to detonate suicide bombs as shoppers fled the scene.
Emails sent from an internet cafe near Naseer’s home had been intercepted in the weeks before his arrest.
The final message led police to believe an attack was imminent.
Coded email from Abid Naseer, 29, which alerted the North West Counter Terrorism Unit (NWCTU) of the imminent nature of his plot to bomb Manchester’s Arndale Centre on one of its busiest weekends, as he has been jailed in America. Photo by Greater Manchester Police/PA Wire
Known as the “Hi Buddy” email because of the way it greeted an al-Qaeda operative, it reads: “I met with Nadia family and we both parties have agreed to conduct the nikah after the 15th and before 20th of this month. I
have confirmed the dates from them and they said you should be ready between these dates.”
The jury was told female names, including Nadia, represented different ingredients used to make bombs. Wedding, or ‘nikah’, was a standard al-Qaeda code for a terror attack.
Based on the Islamic calendar, investigators believed this email was referring to a planned attack during the Easter weekend in 2009.
Police estimated that “hundreds” would have been killed or maimed if the plot had succeeded.
In this image taken from surveillance video on March 26, 2009, and provided by the United States Attorneys Office, Abid Naseer, right, talks on a cell phone while walking along a street in Manchester, England. Naseer was found guilty in New York on Wednesday, March 4, 2015, on terrorism charges for his role in a failed al-Qaida plot to bomb the New York City subway. (AP Photo/U.S. Attorneys Office)
Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit said: “Abid Naseer has finally seen justice for the terrorist atrocities he planned to orchestrate.
“A sentence of 40 years, we believe, is a fitting punishment for a man who came so close to carrying out what would have been one of the horrific terrorist acts seen in the UK since the 7/7 bombings.
“They planned to strike on Easter Weekend, the second busiest shopping day of the year, when between 40,000 and 90,000 people would have been in the targeted areas throughout the weekend.”
During the two-week trial jurors heard evidence from Afghan bomb plotter Najibullah Zazi, who pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb the New York City subways.
US prosecutors said he shared an al Qaeda contact with Naseer, who was was trained in bomb making at a terror camp.
The court heard evidence from five MI5 secret agents who testified in disguise to protect their identities.
Naseer, who conducted his defence, said the US government had misinterpreted harmless emails he wrote about marriage plans.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/