Shoe bomber accomplice was trained in Pakistan

British man pleads guilty to conspiring with shoe-bomber to blow up aircraft
03:16 PM EST Feb 28

ROBERT BARR

LONDON (AP) - A British man accused of conspiring with shoe-bomber Richard Reid pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to blow up a U.S.-bound aircraft in 2001, becoming the first person to be convicted of a terrorist offence in Britain since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Sajid Badat, 25, of Gloucester, England, was charged with conspiring with Reid, who was convicted in the United States, and with a Belgian to make the explosive device.

"It is clear the plan was that Reid and Badat would bring down a passenger aircraft at similar times in late December that year," prosecutor Richard Horwell said.

Badat pleaded guilty to conspiring between Jan. 1, 1999, and Nov. 28, 2003, to place a device on an aircraft in service.

Prosecutors said there was evidence that Badat had lost his nerve and withdrew from the plot.

Reid was arrested after trying to detonate the device aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001. He was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges in the United States.

Prosecutors said Badat had had received training both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that while in Afghanistan, he was given an explosive device designed to evade airport security and destroy an aircraft in flight.

Badat kept the device at his home in Gloucester, but had separated the fuse and detonator from the plastic explosive, Horwell said. Acquaintances in Gloucester had described Badat as a quiet, studious young man who had given sermons at a local mosque. Badat's parents reportedly had emigrated from Malawi in 1960s and settled in Gloucester, where Badat was born.