UK: Knife attacker jailed for minimum of 40 years

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON (AA) - An al-Qaeda bomb maker who plotted to kill MPs and police officers outside Britain’s House of Parliament was given three sentences with a minimum of 40 years in prison on Friday.

Khalid Ali, 28, a plumber by profession, was arrested in April 2017 by police in Parliament Square and found to be in possession of three knives.

Ali had been under surveillance by counter-terrorism units since returning from Afghanistan, where he spent five years as a bomb maker for the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

In 2016 the FBI was able to match Ali’s fingerprints to those found on explosive devices recovered in 2012.

Following his trial at the Old Bailey, Ali was found guilty of planning acts of terrorism on British soil and guilty on two charges of carrying explosive substances and committing acts of terrorism abroad.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the sentencing judge, handed down three life sentences to the former bomb maker.

Hilliard gave a minimum of 40 years for making IEDs for the Taliban in 2012 and 25 years for the plot to kill MPs and policemen in the U.K.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a very considerable risk of your committing offences of violence in the future and cause death or serious injury as a result. I’m sure your plan was to attack and kill someone in central London,” said the judge.

“Your preparations were complete and you very simply had to identify your precise target and his or her death was very likely to be caused by a knife attack. You would kill any police officer you could,” he added.