Three British Muslim men, from left, Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, accused of plotting a bombing campaign, went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in London Monday.(Photo: AP)
LONDON -- Three British Muslim men went on trial in London on
Monday, accused of plotting a bombing campaign that prosecutors say
could have been deadlier than the 2005 London transit attacks.
Prosecutors
say Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, and 31-year-old Irfan Naseer
were part of a plot to mount a terrorist attack "on a scale potentially
greater than the London bombings in July 2005."
Fifty-two
commuters were killed when four al-Qaida-inspired suicide bombers blew
themselves up on London's bus and subway network on July 7, 2005.
The
suspects are among a group of men and one woman arrested in September
2011 in the central English city of Birmingham. All three are charged
with preparing for terrorism by plotting a bombing campaign, recruiting
others and fundraising. Khalid and Naseer also are accused of traveling
to Pakistan for terrorism training.
They have entered innocent pleas.
Prosecutor
Brian Altman said the three were central figures in a plan to detonate
up to eight knapsack bombs in a suicide attack, or to explode timer
bombs in crowded areas.
Prosecutors say targets and other details had not been finalized when the men were arrested.
The
three were allegedly inspired by the anti-Western sermons of U.S.-born
Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in September
2011.
Altman said Naseer and Khalid traveled to Pakistan for
terror training, where they learned details of poisons, bombmaking and
weapons use and made "martyrdom videos" justifying their planned
attacks.
On their return in July 2011, he said, they began to
recruit others to the plot and to raise money by posing as fundraisers
for Muslim charities. Altman accused the men of "despicably stealing
from their own community" to fund their plot.
They also began
experimenting with chemicals "to make an explosive mixture for use in an
improvised explosive device," the prosecutor said, aided by Naseer's
academic background - he has a degree in pharmacy.
Many of the
group's plans soon went awry, however. Four other young men dispatched
by the plotters to Pakistan for terrorist training were sent home within
days when the family of one man found out, Altman said. They have
pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses.
Rahin Ahmed, an
alleged co-conspirator described in court as the cell's "chief
financier," attempted to increase the group's budget by trading the
money it had made through bogus charity fundraising on the
currency-exchange market.
He lost the bulk of the terror cell's money through his "unwise and incompetent" commodities trading, the prosecutor said.
Ahmed has pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism. He has not yet been sentenced.
The
three defendants sat quietly and appeared to follow proceedings closely
from the dock at London's high-security Woolwich Crown Court. The trial
is due to last several weeks.
Associated Press