An Iraqi doctor found guilty of trying to murder hundreds of people in failed car bombings in London and Glasgow was jailed for at least 32 years yesterday.
Bilal Abdulla, 29, who was born in Britain but raised in Iraq, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London on Tuesday of conspiracy to cause explosions for the failed attacks in June last year.
Judge Colin Crichton Mackay told Abdulla that he was a “religious extremist and a bigot” before passing two life sentences on him, with a minimum of 32 years.
“Many people felt and still feel strong opposition to the invasion of Iraq. You do, you are sincere in that and you have strong reasons for holding that view,” Mackay said.
“But you were born with intelligence and you were born into a privileged and well-to-do position in Iraq and you are a trained doctor,” he said.
Abdulla’s radical beliefs meant he remains a danger, he said.
“All of the evidence makes you a very dangerous man, you pose a high risk of serious harm to the British public in your present state of mind,” he said. “That fact plus the circumstances of the offenses themselves means that the only possible sentence on each of these two counts is a life sentence.”
Abdulla had admitted he was a “terrorist,” but accused the British government of terrorism for invading Iraq and said he was not trying to kill or injure anyone.
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