LONDON — Three British Muslims with ties to Pakistan were found guilty Monday of conspiracy to murder in a terrorist bombing campaign, but jurors failed to reach a verdict on whether they plotted to blow up multiple transatlantic airliners with liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.
The failure to get convictions on the more serious charges was a major setback to the British government, which has struggled to put suspected terrorists behind bars with intelligence from multiple countries.
Last month, government prosecutors failed to convict three other men of helping to plan the deadly London transit bombings of 2005 — the worst attack on Britain’s capital since World War II.
In Monday’s decision, Abdulla Ahmed Ali and co-conspirators Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were convicted of trying to make a bomb out of hydrogen peroxide.
But the jury struggled to find enough evidence to support prosecutors’ claims that the men planned suicide attacks targeting passenger jets flying from London to major North American cities. The three will be sentenced at a later date.
The men were arrested on Aug. 10, 2006 — an event that changed air travel dramatically.
Airports in the United States and Europe ground to a halt with hundreds of flights canceled over security concerns. Planes were stuck on runways for hours. Tempers flared as passengers lined up to surrender carry-on items under new precautions that severely restricted the quantity of liquids in their luggage — limits that remain in place today.
Prosecutors said they would consider a request for retrial of the three men. The jury failed to reach verdicts Monday on four other men facing the same charges — Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam. Prosecutors would consider a retrial for them as well.
An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, was found not guilty.
Prosecutor Peter Wright said during the trial that the men planned to attack United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada flights at the height of the 2006 summer vacation season.
