Islamists jailed for plotting attack on British right-wingers

LONDON (AFP) ― Six Islamic extremists were handed lengthy jail terms in Britain on Monday for plotting a murderous attack on a far-right group.

The men planned to attack a rally by the English Defense League ― a group which opposes the spread of radical Islam in Britain ― in June last year but turned up after the demonstration came to an early end.

They were armed with two shotguns, swords, knives, a nail bomb and a partially assembled pipe bomb.

The plot only unraveled when two of them were stopped by chance while driving back home from the rally location in Dewsbury in northern England.

Their car was found to contain not only the weapons arsenal but also 10 copies of a hate-filled note referring to Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister David Cameron.

At a hearing on April 30, Omar Mohammed Khan, 31, Jewel Uddin, 27, Mohammed Hasseen, 24, Anzal Hussain, 25, Mohammed Saud, 23, and Zohaib Ahmed, 22 ― all from Birmingham in central England ― admitted planning the attack.

Khan, Uddin and Ahmed were jailed on Monday for 19 1/2 years, with the other three jailed for 18 years and nine months.

They will be eligible for release after two-thirds of their sentences but could be recalled to prison in the five years following the end of their full term.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard said there was a “tide of apparently freely available extremist material in which most of you had immersed yourselves.

“You intended to engage in a violent confrontation with those attending the EDL rally and use the weapons and the IED to cause serious injuries, and you anticipated that some victims may have died.”