Taliban bomb-maker found guilty of plotting knife attack on MPs and police outside Parliament

From the Telegraph and the London Evening Standard

A Taliban bomb-maker has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of  plotting a knife attack on MPs and police outside the Houses of Parliament. Dramatic body-worn camera footage was aired in court at the beginning of the month of Khalid Ali being taken down by armed police outside Parliament.

In the police video, Ali was seen on the ground as he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism and when an officer asks him if he has anything on him that would cause harm, the defendant can be seen smirking and replying: “You’ll see.” Today, at the Old Bailey, he was found guilty. 

Having cut a backpack with a London logo and a Union Flag emblazoned upon it off his body with a pair of scissors, the officer finds a knife in each of his jacket pockets and one tucked into his waistband. While in custody, Ali’s clothes were taken away and he was found to have a small cut in the front of his underwear where the largest of the three knives was found, jurors heard. His DNA was on all three blades, said prosecutor Alison Morgan.

Ali, a plumber from Edmonton, north London, denied two charges of possessing explosives with intent abroad in 2012 and one charge of preparing terrorist acts in Britain.

The court had heard he planned an attack in the UK after spending five years making bombs with the Taliban in Afghanistan. . . When asked if he had returned for jihad, he said: “Jihad is what we do. We are Mujahideen. And I am here to let you know the reason why I have come with the message, for you to make the right decisions, if not … we have a lot of time. UK is next on the list.”

His fingerprints had been linked by the FBI to Taleban bomb components in Afghanistan, and during his police interview Ali confessed he had helped to construct around 300 explosive devices. . . The fingerprint match was finally sent to the UK within hours of Ali’s arrest in Whitehall, when it was clear he was facing an allegation of plotting a home-grown terror attack.

He described himself as a “Mujahid” – a soldier of Islam – and admitted working on around 300 Al Qaeda bombs, adding menacingly: “If you thought the atom bomb was bad I don’t think that’s nothing compared to what’s coming. I have to defend my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters”,

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, will now decide when to sentence Ali.