February 19, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 11, 1429

LONDON: An Islamist extremist who hatched a plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier and then publish the footage on the internet was jailed for life on Monday.

Parviz Khan pleaded guilty to the plan, as well as supplying equipment to extremists in Pakistan and possessing documents “likely to be of use to a terrorist” at a hearing last month.

Sentencing of the 37-year-old and three other men, who admitted to charges linked to the conspiracy, had been adjourned until the conclusion of hearings involving two other defendants who had denied their involvement.

Judge Richard Henriques, sitting at Leicester Crown Court, east central England, told Khan a dual British-Pakistani national who refused to attend the hearings that he would serve at least 14 years behind bars.

He rejected his defence lawyer’s claims that the plot was not well-advanced and a mixture of “fanaticism and fantasy”, saying: “It’s plain that you (Khan) were absolutely serious and determined to bring this plot to fruition.

“So rampant are your views, so excitable your temperament, so persuasive your tongue and so imbued with energy are you, it’s quite impossible to predict when, if ever, it will be safe for you to be released into the public.” —AFP