A terrorist from St John’s Wood is facing jail for plotting to execute police officers and soldiers in an attack directed by Islamic State leaders in Syria.
Tarik Hassane, 22, of Cherwell House, Church Street Estate, St John’s Wood, teamed up with Suhaib Majeed, 21, from North Kensington, to plan to use mopeds in a series of drive-by shootings across London after the murder of Lee Rigby.
The Old Bailey heard the self-radicalised Britons, attended the Al-Manaar Mosque in Westbourne Park, which was frequented by IS executioner Mohammed Emwazi.
Emwazi’s kidnap gang was behind the videoed beheadings of victims including the British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines, and the US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley.
Hassane and Majeed were inspired by an IS fatwa to commit an atrocity similar in scale to the Paris attacks.
Petty criminal Nathan Cuffy, 26, from Notting Hill, stashed four guns in his bedroom and ex-convict and Nyall Hamlett, 25, from Paddington, supplied a self-loading pistol, ammunition and silencer before their arrests in September 2014.
Both admitted firearm charges but denied knowing about the terror plot and were acquitted of the charge.
Hassane, nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’, would have carried out ‘hostile reconnaissance’ on targets, including a police station and an army barracks, while physics student Majeed received instructions from Syria using ‘spy-proof’ computer software.
All four were arrested by counter-terrorist officers who had Majeed under surveillance.
Hassane admitted the plot before he was due to give evidence at the Old Bailey last month.
Majeed admitted possessing a gun and ammunition but denied the plot.
Today he was convicted of conspiracy to murder and preparation of terrorist acts.
All four men will be sentenced next month.
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