UK Counter-Terrorism (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

After a four month long trial as this BBC report goes into details rarely seen in public and part of the trail was held in secret. Note two defendants were convicted AQ supporters had moved to support Daesh / ISIS. They await sentencing.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40716747

Added later, a second detailed report:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...rrorist-attack

The author tweeted:

Inside the secret op that caught the "three musketeers": perhaps the most bizarre terror trial I've ever witnessed.

The report starts with:

Four men have been convicted of planning a major terror attack in Birmingham after being caught in an elaborate undercover operation. The trial of Naweed Ali, Khobaib Hussain, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz at the Old Bailey has been one of the strangest - and most vigorously contested - terrorism cases of the past decade.

A significant feature became public, a police & MI5 "honey trap":

Hero Couriers had been in operation for up to four years. It had all the trappings of a real courier firm - vans, a corporate logo and a supposed headquarters in Hilton Hall, a stately home converted to offices, near Wolverhampton.But it was all bogus. The firm had no customers - it did no real deliveries. It existed only in order to watch suspects.

One undercover police officer spent two weeks in the witness box facing numerous allegations by the defence, as indicated in a report months ago:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...fying-evidence

Added. Sentenced:

Ali, Hussain and Rahman - who called themselves the Three Musketeers in group messages - were each sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison. All three refused to attend court. They have all previously served prison sentences for terrorism offences.Aziz, who joined the group days before the arrests. was sentenced to a minimum term of 15 years in prison.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40810970

Was stand alone until merged into the main UK CT thread.