| Muhammad Sajid Khan and his wife Shasta |
(JPost) A Muslim couple inspired by al-Qaida propaganda on the Internet were jailed Friday for plotting terrorist attacks on the Jewish community of Manchester in the UK.
Muhammad Sajid Khan, 33, was sentenced to at least seven years in jail, with the eventual length of his sentence to be determined by prison authorities, and his wife, Shasta, 38, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
The couple from Oldham, in greater Manchester, bought material from supermarkets to assemble homemade explosive devices.
They were planning to attack Jewish targets in Prestwich, an area with a large, mainly Orthodox, Jewish community. Manchester is home to the second-largest Jewish community in the UK outside London with a population of around 50,000.
Police only discovered the bomb-making materials after a domestic disputed alerted officers to their house in July 2011. Khan had attacked his wife’s father, and her family decided then to “spill the beans” telling Police that he was a “home grown terrorist.”
The couple were arrested and indicted under the Terrorism Act 2000 on charges of planning and preparing a terror attack.
According to the prosecution, the couple had had become radicalized by material on the Internet, including al-Qaida’s online magazine, Inspire, where they also may have found details on how to build a bomb.
Khan pleaded guilty but his wife had denied any involvement in the plot.
