An Elton John bomb plot has landed a teen in jail after 19-year-old Haroon Syed of the west London pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack.
Syed was sentenced Monday to a minimum of 16 years and six months imprisonment, after pleading guilty to planning a terrorist attack with potential targets including an Elton John concert in London between April and September last year, noted Reuters.
Judge Michael Topolski delivered the sentencing to the British teen at London’s Central Criminal Court.
In a statement, he said Syed had been intent on "carrying out an act of mass murder in this country," adding that Syed was "deeply committed to the ideology of a brutal and barbaric organization that sought to hijack and corrupt an ancient and venerable religion for its own purposes," The Associated Press reported.
Syed’s plotted attack was foiled when, in an attempt to secure weaponry, he approached British intelligence agents posing as extremists via social media. Syad believed he was speaking to a like-minded supporter of the Islamic State, who he thought would assist him in carrying out the attacks, the Crown Protection Service said in a news release.
CPS said that, in a private conversation on social media, Syad wrote: "Two things. Number one machine gun and we need someone who can make a vest you know the dugma (button) one… So after some damage with machine gun then do itishadi (martyrdom)... that's what im planning to do".
Syed was arrested in September, following ongoing investigations.
"When counter-terrorist detectives arrested him in September and asked him for the password for his phone, he replied, 'ISIS - you like that?'" reported the BBC News.
"Haroon Syed is clearly a danger to the public who was prepared to carry out indiscriminate attacks against innocent people. The compelling evidence presented by the CPS left him with no choice but to plead guilty," Deb Walsh, deputy head of the Counter Terrorism Division, said in the CPS statement.
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