London: A London jury today acquitted the wife
of a convicted bomb plotter of failing to pass on information
to authorities.
"Thank you, thank you, thank," Cossor Ali said after the
jury announced its decision following a three-week trial.
Her husband, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, was convicted in
September of leading a conspiracy to murder hundreds of
airline passengers by smuggling liquid explosives aboard as
many as seven aircraft. He was sentenced to 40 years in
prison.
Co-conspirators Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, 28, were
sentenced to 36 years and 32 years respectively.
The discovery of the plot in 2006 led to immediate
restrictions on taking liquids aboard planes and caused
massive disruptions.
Ali said she knew nothing about the plot, though
prosecutors said she had written in a notebook in 2005 that
she hoped her husband gained "the highest level of shahadat".
Prosecutors said "shahadat" meant martyrdom, but Ali said
she took it to mean "the highest level of faith".
The prosecution also contended that she would have known
what her husband wrote in his will in 2004: "We know with full
certainty that we are going to die so let us aim high and
strive for the best death and let us do the most pleasing deed
to Allah and make the greatest sacrifice, fight with our life,
tongue and wealth in the path of Allah."
Ali described her husband as an abusive man who imposed a
strict life, forbidding television or listening to music, and
forcing her to wear a veil.
PTI
First Published: Friday, March 05, 2010, 19:49