Two ISIS supporters were sentenced Friday to minimum prison terms of 37 and 26 years after being convicted of plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack on the Jewish community in England — a plan that prosecutors said could have claimed even more victims than the mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December, in which 15 people were killed.
The defendants, Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were convicted following a trial at Preston Crown Court. The proceedings began just a week after a deadly Yom Kippur attack at a synagogue in Manchester, where two people were killed.
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Police at the scene of the Yom Kippur attack in Manchester
(Photo: REUTERS/Phil Noble)
According to the indictment, the two men held extremist Islamist views and planned to use automatic weapons to kill as many Jews as possible. Judge Mark Wall sentenced Saadaoui to a minimum term of 37 years and Hussein to a minimum term of 26 years. “You were very close to being ready to carry out this plan,” the judge said during sentencing.
Prosecutors stressed that the plot was advanced and particularly alarming, underscoring the level of threat the pair posed to Britain’s Jewish community.
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They planned an attack larger than the one carried out in Manchester
(Photo: Paul Currie / AFP)
During the trial, jurors were shown footage of Saadaoui fleeing from police as officers moved in to arrest him. Prosecutors told the jury that the weapons and ammunition Saadaoui was set to obtain were capable of causing enormous harm — harm that he and Hussein fully intended to inflict.
The Daily Mail reported in October that Saadaoui was due to receive weapons and ammunition for what authorities described as a “mass killing.” Prosecutors said the men planned to murder as many members of the Jewish community as possible, particularly in northwest England. They intended to acquire the weapons and carry out the attack during a large Jewish gathering, identifying areas of Manchester with sizable Jewish populations as potential targets, and planned to kill any police officers who stood in their way.