Four British extremists inspired by the late al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaqi, admitted in court on Wednesday (February 1) to plotting to detonate an IED (improvised explosive device) at the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
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. Gurukanth Desai, 30, and Abdul Miah, 25, both from Cardiff in Wales, pleaded guilty to the same charge.
COMMENT: Police seized a hand-written target list that included the mayor of London, two rabbis and the US embassy during the arrests that led to the defendants' arrest. The four were reportedly influenced to engage in conspiracy as a result of the advocacy of Anwar al-Awlaqi, a US citizen and suspected leader al-Qaeda in Yemen, who was killed in September 2011 in what is thought to have been a US drone strike.
Five other defendants who belonged to the same extremist cell as did the four described above are included in the indictment; all will be sentenced next week. This posting will be updated at that time.
