Jail sentences for Muslims who planned EDL attack
Six Muslim men receive sentences of up to 19 and a half years in prison for planning a violent attack on an English Defence League rally using a nail bomb, shotguns, swords and knives.
Had the attack succeeded, prosecutors feared it would have led to a “tit-for-tat spiral of violence and terror”.
The intention was to mount an attack on EDL supporters with a nail bomb, two sawn-off shotguns, swords and knives.
Jewel Uddin, 27, Omar Mohammed Khan, 31, and Zohaib Ahmed, 22, were jailed for 19 and a half years.
Mohammed Hasseen, 24, Anzal Hussain, 25, and Mohammed Saud, 23, received sentences of 18 years and nine months.
EDL leader Tommy Robinson and his deputy Kevin Carroll called out “God save the Queen” from the public gallery as sentence was passed.
‘Freely available’ material
The plotters were inspired by “freely available extremist material” to plan an attack on an English Defence League rally, the judge said as he passed sentence.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC told the men: “How was it that you became involved in a crime of this gravity? At least part of the answer to that question must come in the tide of apparently freely available extremist material in which most of you had immersed yourselves.”
The judge said the extremist material was “not difficult either to obtain or share”.
He said: “In this case, it can only have served to reinforce the defendants’ resolve to behave in the hideous way that was planned”.
All the men will serve at least two-thirds of the jail terms before they can be considered for parole.
Judge Hilliard said: “There is no reason to suppose that a further attempt may not have been made in the future had the defendants not been apprehended. I find it inconceivable that your resolve would have evaporated.”
He told the defendants that they had intended to cause serious injury and anticipated that “some victims may have died”.
As well as targeting EDL supporters, police officers and members of the public could have been caught up in the bloodshed, the court heard.
‘Reaction to EDL’
Khan’s barrister, Joel Bennathan QC, told the court on Friday the planned attack was a “reaction to the activity of the EDL”.
He said: “”The EDL stage rallies in what they perceive, rightly, to be areas with large Muslim populations. They are intimidating when they do so.
“They are obviously and very deliberately insulting to any Muslims. They are intimidating, they are insulting and they are provocative.”
The men, who are all from the West Midlands, had previously admitted a plot to hit an EDL rally in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in June 2012.
It only failed by chance, and the six conspirators would have gone on to attack another rally by the far right group had they not been stopped, the court was told on Thursday.
They planned their attack because of what they perceived to be the EDL’s recent blasphemous words and actions against the Prophet Mohammed and Islam.
All of the men except Hasseen travelled to Dewsbury on the day of the rally but arrived at around 4pm, while the event had finished earlier than expected at 2pm.