An aborted attack by Islamic extremists on a far-right rally in Britain last year could have sparked a “tit-for-tat spiral of violence”, a prosecutor told a court on Thursday.
Lawyer Bobbie Cheema was speaking at the start of a two-day sentencing hearing for six men who have admitted planning a bloody attack on an English Defence League (EDL) event.
“There can be little doubt that a violent attack of the kind intended to be carried out would have been bound to draw a response in revenge from its target, and most likely would have led to a tit-for-tat spiral of violence and terror,” she said.
As she spoke at the Old Bailey criminal court in London, dozens of EDL supporters gathered outside waving English flags and chanting, and two men were arrested for being drunk and disorderly.
EDL leader Tommy Robinson and his deputy, Kevin Carroll, briefly went into the court to watch the proceedings from the public gallery, and Robinson glared into the dock where the suspects were.
The hearing took place amid community tensions following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby by suspected Islamist extremists in London last month, and there was a heightened police presence at the court.
Jewel Uddin, 27, Omar Mohammed Khan, 31, Mohammed Hasseen, 24, Anzal Hussain, 25, Mohammed Saud, 23, and Zohaib Ahmed, 22, have all admitted planning the attack on the EDL rally in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire.
They only failed because the rally finished earlier than expected and the crowd had dispersed by the time they arrived armed with two sawn-off shotguns, swords, knives, a nail bomb and a partially assembled pipe bomb, Cheema told the court.
“In the months leading up to June 30, 2012 these six men, all ideologically committed to radical Islam, planned to execute a terrible vengeance on the English Defence League for what they perceived to be the EDL’s recent blasphemous words and actions against the Prophet Mohammed and Islam,” she said.
Cheema said the defendants had admitted “that they intended to bring about a violent confrontation with the EDL” during which they all anticipated that some victims may have died.
She said that if the attack had gone ahead, it could have had a “powerful impact” on community relations in Britain.
The plot was only uncovered because a traffic officer stopped Uddin and Khan on a motorway as they returned to their home city of Birmingham in central England.
The officer found that their car was uninsured, so it was impounded and staff at the pound later discovered the arsenal.
The prosecuting lawyer said that Hasseen, Ahmed and Saud had carried out extensive research on the EDL, while the defendants were also found with extremist material in their possession.
Planned UK Islamist attack 'threatened spiral of violence'
