Islamic fanatic admits plot to behead soldier

Published on Tuesday 29 January 2008 12:37

AN Islamist fanatic hatched a terrorist plot to kidnap a Muslim British soldier enjoying a night out and behead him "like a pig" in a lock-up garage, a court heard today.

Parviz Khan, who has pleaded guilty to charges connected to the plan, then intended to release footage of the killing on the internet, a jury at Leicester Crown Court was told.

Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting two other men accused of offences under the Terrorism Act, said Khan, of Alum Rock, Birmingham, is not standing trial because he pleaded guilty to the charges he faces a fortnight ago.

Outlining the plot to kill a soldier, Mr Rumfitt told the jury that Khan hoped to kidnap a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham's Broad Street entertainment quarter with the help of drug dealers.

Mr Rumfitt told the court: "He would be taken to a lock-up garage and 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."

Mr Rumfitt also told the jury that Khan, 37, was at the centre of a terrorist "cell" or network based in the Birmingham area.

Mr Rumfitt added: "The prosecution say that Parviz Khan is a fanatic. He is a man who has the most violent and extreme views.

"He was enraged by the idea that there were Muslim soldiers in the British Army, some of them Muslims from The Gambia in West Africa."

Three other men have also pleaded guilty in connection to the plot.

Basiru Gassama, 30, has admitted knowing about the plot but not telling anyone about it.

Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44, pleaded guilty to helping supply the equipment.

The guilty pleas were entered earlier this month but reporting was restricted until the start of the trial today of two other men charged alongside the four.

Amjad Mahmood, 32, denies knowing about Khan's plot but failing to disclose the information.

Zahoor Iqbal, 30, denies possessing a document or record likely to be useful to a terrorist, namely a computer disc called Encyclopaedia Jihad.

Both men have also pleaded not guilty to helping Khan to supply equipment to terrorists in Pakistan.