Al Qaeda-trained Algerian man convicted for terrorist conspiracy

Britain police convicted an al Qaeda-trained Algerian man, whose actual identity is not known, of a plot to launch chemical and bomb attacks in the biggest UK terrorism case since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, after an investigation that spanned 17 countries.

The raids were one of Britain’s biggest news stories of 2003. But courts banned the media from discussing it for more than two years, keeping it out of public consciousness.

Kamel Bourgass was also found guilty of murdering a policeman in a botched raid when he was captured two years ago, after police discovered a suspected chemical weapons lab in a North London apartment and launched a countrywide sweep.

But Bourgass was not convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, and eight other north Africans were cleared of any role in the plot.
“Their objective was in furtherance of their extremist Islamist cause to commit acts of terrorism in the UK, by use of poisons such as ricin and cyanide, and by use of explosives,” prosecutor Nigel Sweeney told London’s Old Bailey court.

“The jury confirmed the essential thrust of the prosecution that there was a terrorist conspiracy aimed at the UK.”

The men,eight Algerians and a Libyan, were among 100 people arrested in a countrywide anti-terrorism sweep in 2003 prompted by a tip-off from Algerian suspect Mohamed Meguerba, who skipped bail, fled home and was interrogated there.

He told Algerian authorities the British plotters were keeping the deadly ricin poison in a jar of skin cream and planned to smear it on door handles in London. Police did not find the poison but found working recipes to make it.

British police raided a small, dingy flat in north London in January, 2003 after receiving the tip-off from Algerian authorities in December, 2002.
Inside they found recipes and the raw ingredients for making the deadly toxins ricin and cyanide, along with instructions on how to make nicotine poison, rotting meat poison and potato poison and details on how to make explosives.

There were also instructions explaining how to turn the poisons into gasses with the detail that once gaseous, rotting meat poison was 1,000 times more deadly than nerve gas. Bourgass admitted writing out the poison recipes but said they were for villagers in Algeria to use to battle raiders.

“These were no playtime recipes,” prosecutor Nigel Sweeney said during the trial. “These are recipes that experts give credence to and experiments show work. They are scientifically viable and potentially deadly.”

Only accused ringleader Bourgass, also known as Nadir Habra, was convicted. On Wednesday, prosecutors withdrew charges against four of the suspects on the eve of their trial. A court cleared another four suspects last Friday.