Plan Was to Seize Muslim Serviceman, Record Beheading
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
LONDON, Jan. 29 -- An unemployed man pleaded guilty to a plot to kidnap a Muslim British soldier in Birmingham and behead him "like a pig," prosecutors told a court Tuesday.
Parviz Khan, 37, pleaded guilty to the crime two weeks ago, but because of procedures of British law his plea was not made public until Tuesday, at the opening of the trial of two co-defendants.
The case caused a sensation in Britain when Khan was arrested in Birmingham last January and details of the charges against him were leaked to the news media. Britons have become more accustomed to the threat of homegrown extremist violence in recent years, but the notion of a British soldier being killed on British soil in that way shocked many people here.
Details of the charges against Khan, described in court by prosecutor Nigel Rumfitt, largely confirmed accounts made public a year ago -- including Khan's plans to post a video of the soldier's death on the Internet.
Rumfitt said Khan was a "fanatic" who was angered that Muslims were serving in the British armed forces, which have units in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Khan planned to target a Muslim serviceman and abduct him in the popular Broad Street entertainment area of Birmingham, Rumfitt said.
"He would be taken to a lockup garage, and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig," Rumfitt said. "This atrocity would be filmed . . . and the film released to cause panic and fear within the British armed forces and the wider public."
The prosecutor said authorities broke up the plot after Khan's "activities came to the attention of the security services" and they planted a listening device in his house.
Rumfitt also told the court that Khan had pleaded guilty to sending large shipments of night-vision equipment, sleeping bags, walkie-talkies, computer equipment and other gear to Pakistan to be used in extremist activities. Khan shipped goods in 2005 and 2006, claiming they were medicine, clothes and other aid for earthquake victims.
Rumfitt said British authorities stopped Khan in July 2006 on his return from Pakistan. He was found to be carrying a notebook containing "a shopping list from terrorist contacts of materials they wanted sent back in the next delivery."
Khan was placed under surveillance, and in December 2006 he attempted to go to Pakistan with family members, Rumfitt said. But officials searched his luggage and found more walkie-talkies and other equipment. Later they found similar materials at his house waiting to be packed and shipped, the prosecutor said.
Two other men -- Zahoor Iqbal, 30, and Amjad Mahmood, 32 -- have pleaded not guilty to charges that they assisted Khan or knew of his plot and did not report it to police.
In court Tuesday, Rumfitt said a police search of Iqbal's home turned up "disturbingly violent" books and videos, including a "mujaheddin poison book" and a computer disk titled "Encyclopedia Jihad." He also had U.S. Army field manuals, Rumfitt said.
"This man was in possession of material that goes way beyond a healthy interest in world affairs from a Muslim viewpoint and indicates an unhealthy interest if not obsession with extremism," Rumfitt said.
Three men -- Basiru Gassama, 30, Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44 -- have pleaded guilty to helping Khan or failing to report his plot.
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