Briton admits plot to destroy plane with shoe bomb

THE counter-terrorism chief at London’s Scotland Yard last night hailed a very important conviction after a British suicide bomber admitted plotting to blow up a passenger jet with a shoe bomb.

Former grammar school pupil Saajid Badat, 25, had an identical device to the one used by fellow Briton Richard Reid when he attempted to bring down a flight from Paris to Miami.

Intelligence services believe the two had been conspiring together, and had plotted to bring down passenger aircraft at similar times in late December 2001. A piece of detonating cord from Reid’s bomb matched that of Badat’s.

Reid tried unsuccessfully to ignite his shoe bomb and was jailed for life in the US, but Badat changed his mind and dismantled his device, which was designed to evade airport security.

He had intended to use the bomb to destroy a passenger jet while in the air from Europe to the US. Police said he had been prepared to kill hundreds of innocent people.

Badat was training in Afghanistan, where Reid was also trained by the al-Qaida terror network. He was arrested at his family home in Gloucester in November, 2003, and was expected to stand trial.

But he admitted conspiring to blow up an aircraft between January 1, 1999, and November 28, 2003, in a surprise change of plea at the Old Bailey in London yesterday. It is the first successful major prosecution for terrorism in Britain since the 9/11 terrorist atrocities in the US.

Deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-Terrorist branch, said:

“Today’s conviction demonstrates the reality of the threat we are facing. Badat had agreed to blow up a passenger aircraft from Europe to the US and was prepared to kill himself and hundreds of innocents. We must ask how a young British man was transformed from an intelligent, articulate person who was well respected, into a person who has pleaded guilty to one of the most serious crimes you can think of.”

Badat spoke only to confirm his name and plead guilty in yesterday’s 15-minute hearing. The judge, Mr Justice Fulford, will hear the full prosecution case followed by mitigation on March 18.

It will then be for him to decide Badat’s exact culpability in the conspiracy.