Bomb plot doctor jailed

Dec 17 2008

An NHS doctor has been jailed for at least 32 years for plotting to murder hundreds of people in terrorist car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, was unmasked as a terrorist who wanted to murder innocent civilians in revenge for fighting in his native Iraq.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court found him guilty of conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions on Tuesday at the end of a nine-week trial.

Mr Justice Mackay told him he was "religious extremist and a bigot" who held the most extreme form of Islamist views.

The judge said: "Many people felt and still feel strong opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

"You do, you are sincere in that and you have strong reasons for holding that view.

"But you were born with intelligence and you were born into a privileged and well-to-do position in Iraq and you are a trained doctor."

The judge said Abdulla's radical religious and political beliefs meant he continued to be a danger to the British public.

He said: "All of the evidence makes you a very dangerous man, you pose a high risk of serious harm to the British public in your present state of mind.

"That fact plus the circumstances of the offences themselves means that the only possible sentence on each of these two counts is a life sentence."