Vietnamese man in UK sentenced to 40 years in prison for plotting terrorism

Minh Quang Pham, a British-Vietnamese man accused of plotting to bomb a London airport, was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a US court yesterday.

Minh Quang Pham. Photo: Department of Justice

At the Manhattan courthouse,Pham, 33, has admitted three counts of terrorism-related offences for assisting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in its plot to bomb Heathrow Airport.

The charges include providing material support to AQAP, receiving military training from AQAP and possessing and using a machine gun to commit a violent crime, according to the Telegraph.

According to the indictment, Pham traveled to Yemen in 2010 and did graphic design for the former Inspire magazine.a al-Qaeda. During this time, he was also trained by Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Islamic preacher and American-born al-Qaeda leader.

Pham was given $10,000 by al-Awlaki to detonate explosive devices at the airport's arrivals hall.However, the plot failed.Pham was detained at Heathrow in July 2011 after authorities discovered a magazine of armour-piercing ammunition in his luggage.

He was then arrested in the UK in June 2012 at the request of Washington and extradited to the US in February 2015.

Al-Awlaki was also killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

Defense attorneys argued that their client never intended to carry out the attack.

During the trial, Pham admitted that he had “made a serious mistake” and was very sorry but that he “had no intention of harming anyone.” He sent a letter to the judge stating his opposition to all acts of terrorism and extremist ideology.

The court said that Pham may have known he was being followed and delayed his plans. He even calledal-Awlaki while in Britain.

According to VNE