UK Court Sentences 4 Men to Life Imprisonment Over Preparing Terror Attack

The Old Bailey criminal court jailed for life four men for plotting a terrorist attack on police officers or military serviceman, The Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to The Guardian, the trial judge ruled that Naweed Ali, Khobaib Hussain and Mohibur Rahman, who called themselves the "Three Musketeers," played a significant role in preparing the attack, while the fourth man, Tahir Aziz, allegedly played a lesser role.

The men were arrested over terror offenses in August 2016, after the police found an improvised explosive device, an air pistol and a meat cleaver in Ali's car. The convicts denied all the charges, claiming that the evidence had been planted by a police officer, which was not confirmed during several hours of the policeman's cross examination.

According to the prosecution, the four defendants were likely to have been plotting "Lee Rigby-style" attack on police or military, referring to the murder of a UK fusilier, who was stabbed to death in London by two Islamist terrorists of Nigerian descent in 2013.

The United Kingdom has suffered a number of terror attacks over the recent months. The country is currently on a "severe" threat level for international terrorism, meaning that an attack is highly likely. The UK media reported in late May that the UK intelligence services had spotted some 23,000 individuals with extremist views considered to pose a potential terrorist threat.