Islamonazi Planned to Film Beheading of British Muslim Soldier

Fanatic wanted to kill British soldier ‘like a pig’

By Martina Smit
29/01/2008 – Telegraph.co.uk

An Islamist fanatic has admitted to hatching a plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier “like a pig” in a lock-up garage, a court has heard.

Parviz Khan, 38, an unemployed charity worker, planned to film the beheading and post the footage on the internet, Leicester Crown Court was told.

Khan, the ringleader, and three others admitted to a series of charges surrounding the plot earlier this month, but it could not be reported until a jury trying two other men on similar charges was sworn in today.

Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting, told the jury Khan intended to use drug dealers to kidnap the unnamed soldier while he was enjoying a night out in Birmingham’s Broad Street entertainment quarter.

Once the soldier was bundled into a car, he would have been taken to a lock-up garage, Mr Rumfitt added. “There he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig.

“This atrocity would be filmed… and the film released to cause panic and fear within the British armed forces and the wider public.”

Khan, of Alum Rock, Birmingham, had been running a terrorist “cell” in Birmingham, providing terrorists on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan with equipment to fight Western coalition troops, the prosecutor said.

Items included hard drives, range-finders and night vision equipment – some of which were shipped out under the guise of earthquake relief.

The ringleader was “a man who has the most violent and extreme Islamist views”, Mr Rumfitt said. “He was enraged by the idea that there are Muslim soldiers in the British army, some of them Muslims from The Gambia in West Africa.”

The jury heard that Khan wanted a Gambian national, Basiru Gassama, to help him identify a victim for the soldier plot.

However, Gassama, 30, never came up with a name and the plan “lay dormant” after July 2006 – until 6 November that year, when the Gambian visited Khan.

In an attempt to persuade Gassama to help the cell, Khan showed him videos of beheadings. A bug planted by security services in Khan’s home recorded “highly incriminating and damaging comments”, Mr Rumfitt alleged.

“To his credit, there is no evidence that Gassama ever did help. On the other hand, he failed to report Khan to the authorities,” he continued.

Earlier Gassama, of Hodge Hill, Birmingham, has admitted knowing about the plot but not telling police about it.

The jury heard that two other men, Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44, have also pleaded guilty to helping Khan supply the equipment.

But two further men, Amjad Mahmood, 33, and Zahoor Iqbal, 31, denied any involvement.

Mr Mahmood, of Alum Rock, Birmingham, pleaded not guilty to failing to inform police about the plot.

“Mahmood was told of the plot and although it’s clear that Khan was serious, neither Gassama nor Mahmood did anything to warn the authorities in order to save a soldier from what would have been a ghastly death,” Mr Rumfitt said.

Mr Iqbal, of Perry Barr, Birmingham, denied possessing information likely to be useful to terrorists – namely a computer disc called Encyclopaedia Jihad.

The pair also pleaded not guilty to intending to supply equipment to terrorists.

The men were “actively assisting terrorists who were trying to kill our soldiers, as well as those of our allies the United States and Canada,” Mr Rumfitt told the jury.

All six men were arrested at the end of January last year amidst a high-profile operation in Birmingham by police and MI5.

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