AP

Amid tight security, hearing against the top al-Qaeda leader in Britain, who pleaded guilty of conspiring to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, IMF and other sites in the US, begins

London, Nov 7: A Muslim convert considered to be the highest ranking al-Qaeda operative captured in Britain arrived at court amid heavy security on Monday for a sentencing hearing for plotting to bomb major financial targets in the United States, such as the New York Stock Exchange and the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Born a Hindu and raised in Britain, Dhiren Barot, 34, pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to commit mass murder in terrorist plots on both sides of the Atlantic. He faces a life sentence. The hearing is expected to take at least two days.

Armed guards lined the streets outside the courtroom as guards led Barot through an underground tunnel that links the court complex to the prison.

A court ruling had threatened to prevent news media reporting the details of sentencing and details that emerged during the hearing, but The Associated Press, The British Broadcasting Corp, and Times Newspapers Ltd. successfully challenged a judge’s ruling. Judge Neil Butterfield had ruled that publishing details of the two-day sentencing hearing could prejudice trials of Barot’s seven co-defendants.

Barot, who friends said had aspired to be a hotel manager, is wanted in the United States on a four-count indictment and faces a life sentence if convicted of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Under British law, domestic proceedings take precedence over an extradition.

US officials claim Barot converted to Islam following a visit to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and has used the names Abu Eisa al-Hindi, Abu Musa al-Hindi and Issa al-Britani.

Al-Britani was named in the report of the US commission into the September 11, 2001, attacks, which claimed he had been ordered by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged September 11 planner, to identify bombing targets in New York.

The report said Mohammed had sent al-Britani to Malaysia to study Islamic extremists in Southeast Asia.

Prosecutor Edmund Lawson told a court hearing last month that Barot had planned to cram three limousines with gas cylinders and explosives and detonate them in underground London parking garages.

He had hoped to conduct simultaneous attacks and had rough plans for “radiation or dirty-bomb projects”, combining radioactive material with conventional explosives, prosecutors said.

Lawson said the dirty bomb was designed to cause “injury, fear, terror and chaos” but considered by experts unlikely to have been powerful enough to kill.

Plans outlining details of the US attacks, including reconnaissance videos filmed in August 2001, had been found on a computer after Barot’s arrest in August 2004, prosecutors said.

Discovery of his purported plot against the US — which included targeting the World Bank headquarters in Washington, the Citigroup building in New York and the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey — led US President George W. Bush to raise the threat level.

Barot’s alleged co-conspirators are scheduled to face trial in Britain next year.