BOMBER FREED BY SECRET JUSTICE
Terrorist released after supergrass deal in closed court
A CONVICTED terrorist who plotted to blow up a jet has been secretly walking the streets of Britain for two years after being freed early in return for becoming an Al Qaeda supergrass.
Saajid Muhammad Badat, 33, was jailed for 13 years for planning to destroy a transatlantic plane with a shoe-bomb in a co-ordinated attack in December 2001 with fellow Briton Richard Reid. But yesterday it emerged that the former grammar school boy had been freed two years early after striking a secret deal to testify against a suspected terrorist in America.
In an extraordinary secret court hearing, the Islamic fundamentalist was released following a private discussion between a judge, his solicitor and prosecutors.
Badat, who was jailed in 2005, would only have been eligible for release in July this year, with a licence period extending to August 2013, but his sentence was cut in the deal agreed by the judge.
Yesterday Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service released a joint statement saying this case – the first of its kind – was a great example of how the authorities were fighting terror.
But the case has raised questions about the extent of secrecy surrounding criminal courts. In addition, it is unclear how much his freedom has cost the taxpayer as Badat will require substantial levels of police protection.
Indeed, details of his release might never have been made public but for a trial in New York this week where he is due to give evidence against suspected U.S. terrorist, Adis Medunjanin.
He is accused of plotting an Al Qaeda attack on the New York subway on the eighth anniversary of 9/11 in 2009.
Yesterday the CPS released court documents showing that Badat was ‘highly
trusted within the higher echelons’ of Al Qaeda. He was so ‘well placed’ that he was ‘assessed of being of potential use in between 12 and 18 future trials’ in the U.S., the documents reveal.
After signing a secret agreement to co-operate with the CPS and the FBI, Badat faced ‘marathon interviews’ for almost 45 hours as police sought to squeeze every last detail about Al Qaeda’s structure and commanders both here and in America.
His debrief took place in 112 interviews over 26 days.
Scotland Yard said yesterday he had been providing intelligence for a number of years while behind bars which had assisted anti-terrorist investigations.
Today it can be revealed that even as far back as 2005, the authorities were attempting to hide his cooperation as the trial judge handed down what was in effect a coded sentence disguising the real reason that his tariff had been slashed by three-quarters to just 13 years.
Mr Justice Fulford said Badat could have been facing a term of more than 50 years after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy with others to destroy a passenger airliner while in flight by igniting a high-explosive device.
The Old Bailey heard that Badat, from Gloucester, was to have been ‘a key player’ in a second wave of airline attacks five months after September 11.
The plan was for the 25-year-old to trigger his bomb in a simultaneous attack with fellow British shoe bomber Richard Reid as they travelled across the Atlantic on two packed airliners.
Badat, who had been trained in Al Qaeda camps, had a bomb designed to be placed in his shoes. The devices that he and Reid intended to use were sufficient to blow a hole in the fuselage of a jet.
But while Reid was flying from Paris to Miami in December 2001, Badat got ‘cold feet’ and didn’t board his flight from Amsterdam’s Schipol airport.
Instead, he emailed his handler in Pakistan, telling him he had ‘ big problems’. He hid the device under his bed at his parents’ home.
He was not caught until 2003 when police, acting on intelligence, searched the house and found the bomb. On 22 April 2005, Mr Justice Fulford sentenced him to 13 years saying: ‘It would not be in the public interest to send out a message that if would-be terrorists turn away from death and destruction before any lives are put at risk, the courts will not reflect in a significant and real way any such genuine change of heart in the sentence which is handed down.’
But when the CPS struck a cooperating witness agreement with Badat, it emerged that there were other reasons for the lenient sentence. On November 13 2009, when prosecutors applied to cut his sentence during a closed court hearing
‘He has refused a new identity’
at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Calvert-smith confirmed that the trial judge knew Badat had been cooperating with the authorities.
He remarked: ‘One would have thought that rats would have been smelt from the moment Mr Justice Fulford passed his sentence.’
Representing Badat, Sarah Forshaw said: ‘He is – undoubtedly was – highly trusted within the higher echelons of the organisation (Al Qaeda).’ Mr Justice Calvert-smith said that his ruling and even the existence of the hearing must be kept secret, saying Badat was, ‘of such international and overwhelming importance to the administration of justice, not just in this country, but worldwide’.
He ordered that his parole hearing be fast-tracked so that he could apply for parole the same day.
The court was told that Badat had renounced terrorism and believed he had been manipulated and exploited by Al Qaeda.
The Mail has led criticism of plans for more secret courts as an affront to traditions of open justice.
Last night Sue Hemming, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: ‘We considered very carefully the merits of entering into this agreement with a convicted terrorist, and we believe that the administration of justice internationally benefits from such an agreement. Badat has helped with investigations in this country, he continues to co-operate and has agreed to testify in other trials if called upon.’
Badat is now believed to be living under witness protection, although he has refused an offer of a new identity. Yesterday his family who still live in Gloucester refused to comment. A man believed to be his younger brother said: ‘You have seen what the CPS have said. We would rather keep everything else within the family.’
WOULD-BE shoe bomber Saajid Badat, has had his 13-year sentence cut by two years after recanting his crimes and agreeing to testify against other Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in the U.S.
This is an exceptional case and there may be strong justification for the sentence cut, but there will be deep misgivings that the deal was done entirely in secret. The hearing could have been held in open court with reporting restrictions to protect Badat’s identity. he will in any case be giving evidence under his own name in America, so those he has accused already know he has informed on them.
But for two years this terrorist has been walking the streets because of a cosy deal between lawyers behind closed doors.
Didn’t the public have a right to know?