US airmen terror attack: Junead Khan found guilty

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Junead and Shazib KhanImage copyrightCPS




Junead and Shazib Khan

A delivery driver from Luton has been convicted of plotting to kill a US airman outside a base in East Anglia.
Junead Khan, a supporter of so-called Islamic State (IS), was found guilty of preparing terrorist acts.
Khan had driven past RAF Lakenheath and other bases on his delivery route, and had discussed staging a car crash and attacking a soldier with a knife.

He was also convicted of preparing to join IS in Syria. His uncle Shazib Khan was also convicted of the same charge.
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said the attack planned by Junead Khan was similar to the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013.

How Islamic State group supporters targeted the UK
Police said he planned to stage a car crash outside an airbase and then use a knife to attack a member of the US military.
He had also done extensive research on how to make a bomb, said Commander Dean Haydon of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.

In July 2015, Junead Khan had an encrypted online conversation with Junaid Hussain, a British IS operative in Syria.





Junaid Hussain

The US military said Junaid Hussain's online activity meant he could "reach across the sea" to inspire violence
He was sent instructions on how to build a bomb and was told to use it against police if they arrived on the scene of his planned attack.

Days after this online conversation he carried out internet research into buying a large knife - but was then arrested at his workplace.

The following month Junaid Hussain was killed in a US missile strike - one of only a few British IS operatives who have been targeted in this way.

Sue Hemming, head of the counter terrorism division of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Through early detection and prosecution of these individuals more serious crimes have been avoided which could have had devastating consequences in the UK or Syria."

The verdicts came after a six-week trial at Kingston Crown Court.
The men were remanded in custody and will be sentenced on 13 May.

US airmen terror attack: Junead Khan found guilty - BBC News

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Junead Khan (left) and Shazib Khan were both supporters of so-called Islamic State
A delivery driver from Luton has been jailed for life, with a minimum term of 12 years, for plotting to kill a US airman outside a base in East Anglia.

Junead Khan, 25, used his job with a pharmaceutical firm to scout US bases for potential victims, a court heard.
He had driven past RAF Lakenheath and discussed knifing a soldier.

Khan had also been found guilty, along with his uncle, Shazib Khan, 23, of preparing to go to Syria to join so-called Islamic State (IS).
Shazib Khan was given an extended sentence of 13 years in prison and will have to serve eight years in custody.

'Terrorist propaganda'
Junead Khan also exchanged online messages with an IS fighter in Syria.

Prosecutors claimed the man Khan exchanged messages with, Abu Hussain, was British-born Junaid Hussain.
Hussain was killed in a US drone strike in the IS stronghold of Raqqa just weeks after his link with the planned UK attack was discovered.
One message described an attack on military personnel, which they compared with the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013.

Sentencing Khan at London's Kingston Crown Court, Mr Justice Edis said: "Junead Khan was not far from the commission of the murder to be committed by horrifying method in the street in order to create terror and terrorist propaganda in this country.
"His offence was so serious that a life sentence must be imposed."

Sharia law
Police arrested Junead Khan last July and discovered pictures on his phone of him posing in his bedroom with an IS-style black flag later found in the attic.
His computer was also found to contain an al-Qaeda bomb manual and Amazon searches for a large combat knife.
Police officers had visited Khan as part of the national anti-extremism programme Prevent.

But the court heard Khan mocked the programme in a series of scathing WhatsApp messages.
Mr Justice Edis said the two men, who are of Bangladeshi backgrounds, had rejected the values and opportunities Britain gave them.

He added: "They both believe that Sharia law is the only legitimate law and both reject democracy, because it involves law being made by people and not by God.

"They have rejected the protection of the law of this country and education they have received by becoming committed supporters of Isis (IS) - an organisation which wishes to control the world and which will stop short of no barbarity in order to do so."

US airmen terror attack: British man Junead Khan jailed - BBC News

[pseudolus]

What laws had they broken exactly?

[billy the kid]

for plotting to kill a US airman

must be a new law.

[pseudolus]

I wonder which one?

[billy the kid]

because it involves law being made by people and not by God.

Padded cell talk,, maybe this one. Better to throw the key in the river.