A pharmacy graduate and two of his accomplices were jailed on Friday for plotting one of the worst terror attacks on British soil.
While ringleader Irfan Naseer, 31, a pharmacy graduate, received five life sentences, his associates Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both aged 27, were given 18 and 15 years' jail respectively, media reports said.
They were convicted in February of plotting and engaging in work to carry out terrorist attacks in crowded places in Britain.
Sentencing Naseer at South London's Woolwich Crown Court, judge Richard Henriques said he would spend a minimum of 18 years before being eligible for parole and to expect to spend many years more than that behind bars. "Your plot had the blessing of al-Qaeda and you intended to further the aims of al-Qaeda," the judge said.
All the three from UK's Birmingham area were believed to have influenced by the teachings of U.S.-born radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011.
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