USA/FILE: Briton Saajid Badat testifies via video link in the New York trial of accused subway bomb plotter Adis Medunjanin

Record ID: 357494

  • Title: USA/FILE: Briton Saajid Badat testifies via video link in the New York trial of accused subway bomb plotter Adis Medunjanin
  • Date: 25th April 2012
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE) (REUTERS) FEDERAL COURTHOUSE IN BROOKLYN
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA2TTZ6MZQMPBU919PUWI5FTI78
  • Story Text: A Briton convicted of plotting with shoebomber Richard Reid to carry out a suicide bomb attack on an aircraft testified by video link in the trial of a man accused of an al Qaeda bombing plot in New York.
    Saajid Badat, 33, was convicted in Britain in 2005 of conspiring with Reid to blow up planes in simultaneous attacks and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
    Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday (April 16) his jail sentence had now been shortened to 11 years after he agreed to testify at the New York trial of Adis Medunjanin, a suspected al Qaeda militant and other suspected militants.
    Medunjanin is accused of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to al Qaeda. His trial is being held at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
    The deal involving Badat, agreed in 2009 but only revealed on Monday (April 16), is the first of its kind to be made by British prosecutors and the decision had not been taken lightly, according to Sue Hemming, Head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division.
    Reid failed in his bid to blow up an American Airlines plane from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001 after passengers and crew overpowered him as he tried to ignite explosives in his shoe. Reid was jailed in the United States for life.
    Badat was booked on a flight from Britain to the United States via Amsterdam days earlier, but had a change of heart and abandoned his attack plans. He then cooperated with counter-terrorism police and the FBI while in prison.
    Hemming said that Badat had helped with other terrorism investigations in Britain and had agreed to give evidence at other trials if necessary.
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