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  1. Media Law
November 4, 2013

Airline bomb plot mastermind to argue at ECHR that publicity prejudiced his trial

By Press Gazette

The man behind a plot to bring down a number of airliners flying out of Britian with liquid bombs is going to the European Court of Human Rights to argue that publicity meant that he did not get a fair trial.
Abdulla Ahmed Ali developed a home-made bomb which could be disguised as a soft drink through airport security and assembled on board.
Ali is taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights to claim that his right to a fair trial was infringed by publicity before he was tried and convicted of conspiracy to murder.
He argues that the jury would have been prejudiced by coverage of a previous trial.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling told The Sunday Telegraph said: "This yet a further example of why things cannot go on as they are.
"It is unacceptable to have a situation in which claims to the European Court of Human Rights are actually being used to undermine our justice system.
"Our justice system is one of the best in the world and the Strasbourg court has no business telling us how to run it."
The European Court of Human Rights cannot quash the conviction but could pave the way for Ali to make a fresh appeal in the British courts.
Ali recruited friends and associates to act as suicide bombers as part of his plot, which was uncovered in 2006.
The group recorded martyrdom videos at a flat in Walthamstow, east London.
Ali singled out seven flights to San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, New York and Chicago which departed within two-and-a-half hours of each other.
If successful, the explosions could have exceeded the carnage of the September 11 attacks, his trial heard.
He was sentenced to life.

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