Shoe bomber accomplice pleads guilty at Old Bailey

The Times ^ | 2/28/05

[Valin]

A British-born suicide bomber plotted to bring down a packed passenger aircraft over the Atlanttic at the same time that the shoe bomber Richard Reid targeted an American Airlines flight, the Old Bailey heard today.

But Saajid Badat changed his mind and dismantled his own shoe bomb, which was designed to evade airport security.

Badat, 25, from Gloucester, admitted conspiring to blow up an aircraft between January 1 1999 and November 28, 2003 in a surprise change of plea today. He had been due to stand trial for the offence.

Intelligence services believe Badat had been conspiring with Reid, a fellow British Muslim, who is in jail in America for trying unsuccessfully to ignite a shoe bomb on board a Miami-bound jet.

Badat agreed to be a suicide bomber with the intention of destroying a passenger aircraft while in the air from Europe to the United States, said Mr Horwell. He had received training both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was given an explosive device designed to evade airport security and to destroy an aircraft in flight.

The device was identical to that used by Reid when he attempted to bring down an aircraft on December 22, 2001 on a flight from Paris. A piece of detonating cord from Reid’s bomb matched that of Badat’s bomb. Badat returned to the UK on December 10, 2001, with the device in his possession.

"It is clear the plan was that Reid and Badat would bring down a passenger aircraft at similar times in late December that year," said Richard Horwell, prosecuting, as he gave a brief outline of the case to the court. A full hearing is due on March 18, when the prosecution will give full details.

Mr Horwell said that Badat had sent an email to his handlers on December 14, 2001, four days after his return, "indicating he might withdraw".

He said: "He had booked a ticket to fly from Manchester to Amsterdam in preparation for an onward flight to the United States on which the explosive device would be initiated.

"But he did not take that flight. We accept by then he had withdrawn from the conspiracy which by then he had been party to for an appreciable period of time.

"The device he brought with him to the UK was kept at his home (in Gloucester). He had separated the fuse and the detonator from the plastic explosive."

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, welcomed Badat’s plea. He said: "Three years of intensive and painstaking international investigation brought us to the point where Saajid Badat had no option but to plead guilty to this horrendous offence."

Badat had been living quietly with his family in Gloucester and news of his arrest in November 2003 came as a shock to neighbours. He had been studying at a mosque in Blackburn.

Badat appeared in court today wearing a grey sweater and a beard. He spoke only to confirm his name and plead guilty during the 15-minute hearing.

Badat had been linked to Reid by security services who found Belgian telephone cards on Reid. The cards were used by Badat to contact Reid’s terrorist contact Nizar Trabelsi, who is in jail in Belgium.

Inquiries were made in America, Belgium and Holland and a large amount of computer material was analysed. Mr Horwell told the court today that police recovered the device from Badat’s home in November 2003 - almost two years after he apparently decided not to go ahead with the bombing.

The prosecutor said that, on his way to the police station, Badat confessed that he had been asked to carry out the shoe bombing just like Reid. He said that he had been given the device in Afghanistan, but he later withdrew from the plot.

Badat said he had removed the detonator and plastic explosive from the shoe in which it had been hidden. Mr Horwell said there was little dispute between the defence and the prosecution about the facts. Badat was saying he withdrew from the plot before his return to the UK.

"We say he withdrew a little later. He was plainly having second thoughts by December 14 (2001), and had withdrawn by the 17th by virtue of the fact he did not take that flight."

Badat’s counsel, Joel Bennathan, said it was important for people to realise that although a very serious conspiracy, it was an agreed fact that Badat had decided he would not go through with the bombing.

A "trace" of explosive was found in Badat’s locker at the Blackburn mosque where he had been studying the Koran. The amount was so small that it is believed it may have been transferred from Badat’s hand.

The judge, Mr Justice Fulford, will hear the full prosecution case, followed by a plea in mitigation by the defence, at the March 18 hearing.

It will then be for him to decide Badat’s exact culpability in the conspiracy. The charge was brought under the 1977 Criminal Law Act. Two other - lesser - charges which Badat denied, brought under the 1883 Explosive Substances Act, were ordered to lie on the file by the judge.

They alleged possession of explosive substances with intent to endanger life and possession of explosive substances for an unlawful purpose.