Four admit plot to blow up London Stock Exchange

The men, to be sentenced next week, plotted a spate of mail bomb attacks and discussed a “Mumbai-style” atrocity.

LONDON: Four British men, inspired by a former al Qaeda leader, admitted in court on Wednesday that they had plotted to blow up the London Stock Exchange in 2010.

The men, who belonged to a group of fundamentalists, plotted a spate of mail bomb attacks during the run-up to Christmas that year and discussed launching a “Mumbai-style” atrocity, Woolwich Crown Court in London heard.

Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, and Shah Rahman, 28, both from London, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

Brothers Gurukanth Desai, 30, and Abdul Miah, 25, both from Cardiff in Wales, admitted the same count.

Five others, four from the central city of Stoke and another from Cardiff in Wales, also admitted involvement in the group.

Police seized a hand-written target list that included the mayor of London, two rabbis and the US embassy during the arrests.

Although they were not members of al Qaeda, prosecutors said they were inspired by the terror network and specifically by Anwar alAwlaqi, a suspected leader of the group in Yemen who was killed in September in what is thought to have been a US drone strike.

The nine defendants “were implementing the published strategy of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (the group’s deadliest global branch)”, said prosecution lawyer Andrew Edis.

The group, who met because of their membership of various extremist Islamic groups, had originally challenged the charges against them and were due to stand trial, but at the eleventh hour they changed their pleas to guilty. They will be sentenced next week.