London: Three British Muslim men, who travelled to Pakistan to attend terror training camps, on Friday pleaded guilty to planning to prepare for terrorism acts overseas.
Richard Dart, 30, along with fellow Londoners Imran Mahmood, 21, and Jahangir Alom, 26, pleaded guilty to preparing for terrorism or assisting another in terrorism between July 2010 and July 2012 at a hearing at the Old Bailey today.
They appeared before Justice Simon by prison video-link for the plea and case management hearing and are due to face trial next month.
The charges against them said they travelled to Pakistan for terror training, travelled abroad to commit acts of terrorism and provided information about travel to Pakistan, terrorism training and operational security while there.
Dart, the son of teachers from Dorset in south-west England, had appeared in a BBC documentary back in 2011 made by his stepbrother soon after his conversion to Islam.
In the film, My Brother The Islamist, the bearded convert was said to have changed his name to Salahuddin al-Britani and reportedly worked as a BBC security guard in the past.
Dart`s extremism was traced to radical group Muslims Against Crusades, which he claimed to represent at events in London.
The UK government subsequently banned the group in November 2011, classifying it as a new version of an outfit already on a list of proscribed terrorist organisations.
No evidence has been presented in court to reveal how Dart and his co-accused were recruited to commit the offences to which they have pleaded guilty.
Alom, from east London, used to be a police community support officer and his wife Ruksana Begum, previously pleaded guilty to possession of information likely to be useful to a terrorist by having a memory card carrying copies of a jihadist magazine, Inspire.
The publication, aimed at English-speakers, included information about using handguns and remote detonation of explosives.
She received a 12-month jail sentence in December 2012.
Two of Begum`s brothers were jailed last year after pleading guilty to a bomb plot that could have targeted the London Stock Exchange.
PTI
