LOC20:25
17:25 GMT
LONDON, June 20 (KUNA) -- A Muslim couple were assembling components of a
home-made bomb to attack Jewish neighbourhoods after becoming radicalised by
al Qaida propaganda on the internet, a court heard Wednesday.
Mohammed Sajid Khan, 33, and his wife Shasta, 38, bought substances and
equipment from supermarkets to assemble an improvised explosive device to
carry out a terrorist attack after scoping Jewish targets, Manchester Crown
Court, northern England, heard.
Behind their "apparent normality of daily life", Khan, an unemployed car
valeter, and his hairdresser wife planned to carry out "jihad at home", Bobbie
Cheema, prosecuting, told the court.
And the pair were only "mercifully" stopped by chance after a minor
domestic row led to police being called to their house in Oldham, Greater
Manchester.
Mrs Khan decided to "spill the beans", confess, to police after her brother
told officers: "I think he's a home-grown terrorist". Mohammed Sajid Khan has
already pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to terrorism offences but his
wife has denied any involvement.
She has pleaded not guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for acts
of terrorism and three counts of possessing information useful for committing
or preparing for an act of terrorism.
Opening the case for the prosecution at the start of Shasta Khan's trial,
Miss Cheema told the jury: "The essence of what is alleged in this case is
relatively straightforward.
"It is that in 2010 and 2011 they both became radicalised by material found
on the internet such as an al Qaida magazine called Inspire, the aim of which
is to encourage Muslims in the West and this country to carry out violent holy
war or jihad by mounting attacks in their own countries independent of any
outside direction or association with any other person.
"They became radicalised by the teaching of extremist Islamists who were
themselves motivated by al Qaida.
"In response, the two of them began to make preparations or assisted each
other to make preparations to carry out a terrorist attack on British soil,
with the most likely target being an orthodox Jewish area of Prestwich in
Greater Manchester." (end)
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