Tarik Hassane and Suhaib Majeed intended to kill soldiers, police officers and civilians in Islamic State-inspired shootings.
18:42, UK,Friday 22 April 2016
Two Britons who planned Islamic State-inspired terror on the streets of London have been jailed for life.
Students Tarik Hassane and Suhaib Majeed, both 22, were sentenced at the Old Bailey.
They had plotted to kill soldiers, police officers and civilians in a series of drive-by shootings.
Acting on instructions from mastermind Hassane, physics student Majeed had got his hands on a gun and ammunition.
He was discussing buying an untraceable moped before police swooped to arrest him in September 2014.
His old school friend Hassane, nicknamed The Surgeon, was studying medicine in Sudan at the time.
But he rushed back to London to carry on as a "lone wolf terrorist" before he, too, was picked up.
He identified Shepherd's Bush police station and the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army Barracks at White City as possible targets on Google Street View.
Majeed, 22, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder and preparation of terrorist acts after Hassane, 22, admitted the charges midway through the Old Bailey trial.
Mr Justice Wilkie jailed Hassane for a minimum of 21 years and Majeed for a minimum of 20 years.
The court was told earlier that both men had now accepted their involvement in the plot to murder.
In his confession, Hassane had said he felt like he was in a "bubble" at the time, but added: "I really doubt I could have ever done this."
Passing sentence, the judge told the pair: "It is shocking, tragic and deplorable that you, two young British men, educated through the UK school system, undertaking university courses, should be so influenced by the bloodthirsty version of Islam presented by ISIS (another name for IS) and other similarly minded groups, that you decided to take up arms against your fellow British citizens and those charged with protecting them in the streets of your own city."
The judge said in a "frank" account, Hassane had admitted visiting Syria in 2013 where he learned how to handle guns and spent time with a fighter who was later killed.
On returning to the UK, having decided to become a fighter too, he raised thousands of pounds to support extremist violence in Syria, before becoming the "prime mover" in the plot.
The court heard that the pair, from west London, had links to the same mosque associated with Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, an executioner for IS who achieved notoriety before being killed.
Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Nathan Cuffy, 26, who were acquitted of being part of the plot, were sentenced for firearms offences. Hamlett was given six and a half years in jail, while Cuffy was handed 11 years behind bars.
Cuffy supplied a self-loading Baikal pistol with silencer and bullets to fellow Muslim convert and former Catholic altar boy Hamlett, who admitted transferring it on to Majeed.
Hamlett said he only found out what he had been asked to deliver to Majeed at the last minute, while Cuffy said he also had no idea about the plot.
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