Monday, November 17, 2014

Guilty: Law student is convicted of possessing bomb-making document which could be useful to a terrorist

  • Erol Incedal, 26, guilty of having bomb-making manual on memory card
  • Conviction revealed after banning order lifted on unanimous guilty verdict
  • Student also accused of preparing act of terrorism - a Mumbai-style attack
  • He denied the charges and his trial was the first held behind closed doors
  • Jury was discharged by Mr Justice Nicol and new trial will be in February
A law student was convicted of possessing a bomb making manual during a secret trial at the Old Bailey, it can be revealed for the first time today.

Police found the document on a memory card belonging to Erol Incedal and the jury found him guilty on the basis it was was likely to be useful to a terrorist, it can now be reported.

But the jury was discharged from further deliberations on another charge of preparing an act of terrorism with others abroad.

He was charged with preparing an act of terrorism with others abroad, either against individuals or a 'Mumbai-style' attack.

Guilty: Erol Incedal, centre, was found guilty of possessing a bomb making manual on a memory card but will face a new trial on the charge of preparing a terrorist act, which he denies

Today Mr Justice Nicol removed an order banning publication of the jury's unanimous guilty verdict on a charge of possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist.

He said it was no longer necessary after ruling that this verdict was admissible at the retrial due to take place on February 23 next year. 

Incedal's friend Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar, also 26, has already pleaded guilty to possessing the bomb making manual.

During Incedal's trial, the court heard that he was stopped and arrested by police on September 30 last year for driving his black Mercedes car at 60mph in a 40mph zone with no licence and insurance.

Officers discovered a slip of paper with the address of former prime minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie on it in the car and planted a bug which picked up Incedal's conversations in the following days.

The Turkish-born defendant was heard on tape to complain about 'pigs' to his wife and talking about going to a 'Plan B'.

He said: 'I made a big mistake. Some very important stuff was in the car. If they find it, I would be f*****.'

On October 13 last year, armed police stopped Incedal's car again near London Bridge and arrested him on suspicion of being a terrorist.

They searched the Turkish-born father-of-two's home address in south London, where they found notes on a 'Plan A'.

It detailed a checklist of 'three to four workers, two tennis racquets, one month's surveillance, rent nearby flat, transport, assess security, assess risk, legitimacy, action etc', the court heard.

And at a second shared flat near Paddington, officers uncovered a laptop computer containing coded messages about a Mumbai-style attack and a Kalashnikov rifle, the court has heard.

They also discovered a photograph of an East End synagogue on his iPhone as well as an internet search history including YouTube pages on Isis.

In his defence, Incedal denied that he had been planning a terrorist attack.

 He accepted that he possessed the memory card but said he had a reasonable excuse for it.

The majority of the Old Bailey trial has been heard behind closed doors, at times with accredited journalists present but unable to report on proceedings, which have been mainly in secret.

In all, 40 hours of evidence was heard behind closed doors, eight hours with accredited reporters present and 12 hours in open court.

Incedal was formerly known in the court case as AB and his co-defendant Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar, 26, who has admitted possessing an identical bomb-making document, as CD.

The exceptional and controversial arrangements for the secret trial were made after a media challenge at the High Court against the entire case being heard in secret on grounds of national security.

As well as opening up the case to partial reporting, it led to the defendants being named in public for the first time.


No comments: