Yahoo News 'Three musketeers' jailed for planning Lee Rigby-style attack
Members of a terrorist cell who dubbed themselves the “Three Musketeers” are facing years behind bars for plotting a Lee Rigby-style attack.
The gang, from the West Midlands, had been preparing to strike police and military targets on British soil.
However, they were arrested in August last year after MI5 went to bug the car of Naweed Ali, only to uncover a pipe bomb and meat cleaver with the word “kafir” – non-believer – scratched on it in readiness for an imminent attack hidden in a JD Sports bag.
An imitation gun, cartridges, a 9mm bullet, latex gloves and industrial tape were also recovered.
Ali, 29, Khobaib Hussain, 25, and Mohibur Rahman, 33, called themselves the Three Musketeers on encrypted Telegram exchanges.
It was led by former law degree student turned trainee gas fitter Hussain, from Birmingham, and included his friend and next-door neighbour Ali and committed jihadist Rahman, who they met behind bars.
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Ali and Hussain were jailed for joining a terrorist training camp in Pakistan while Rahman, from Stoke, was in prison for possessing an al Qaida propaganda magazine which contained bomb-making instructions.
Family man and Primark salesman Aziz was keen not to be “left behind” but was only brought into the Three Musketeers plot days before the arrests.
The gang had tried to evade secret services and police and even attempted to double deal with an MI5 contact of Rahman’s to extract information.
But the authorities were one step ahead of them with an elaborate undercover operation at Hero Couriers, where Hussain and Ali were offered driving shifts.
The defendants were also covertly photographed meeting on a boating lake and in a park days before their arrests, the court heard.
The gang denied preparing an attack and claimed the incriminating evidence was planted by an undercover officer known as Vincent, who posed as the boss of a fake firm called Hero Couriers.
During their partly-secret trial, the officer, who gave evidence anonymously, linked Hussain with the JD Sports bag, saying he carried a similar one on earlier visits to the fake firm’s depot.
Vincent was cross-examined over 12 days and repeatedly rejected the allegations against him.
The court also heard that he described the claims in a private message as “the usual bo****ks”.
Jurors agreed with him and, after deliberating for 22 hours, convicted Ali, Hussain and Rahman of preparing terrorist acts.
The fourth defendant, Tahir Aziz, 38, was found guilty of the same offence after the jury deliberated for another 20 minutes.
Mr Justice Globe remanded the defendants in custody until sentencing on Thursday morning.
As they were led from the dock, one of the convicted men shouted out: “I hope you’re happy with your lies. Lying scumbags.”
The four-month trial was held partly in secret in the interests of national security as two anonymous witnesses gave evidence behind closed doors.
The trial was also disrupted over fears jurors might be unfairly influenced as the country was rocked by four terror attacks in Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge, and Finsbury Park.
