Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Released 'Shoe Bomber' Accomplice Saajid Muhammed Badat To Give Evidence In Abu Hamza Trial - Supported By Taxpayer
Released 'Shoe Bomber' Accomplice Saajid Muhammed Badat To Give Evidence In Abu Hamza Trial - Supported By Taxpayer
February 4, 2014
Shoe bomber's accomplice to give evidence against Abu Hamza to prove he was a ‘terrorist with global reach'
British-born Saajid Muhammad Badat will be the star witness when Hamza goes on trial in New York later this year
He will give evidence by video link as he is afraid if he attends the trial in New York he will be arrested by U.S. authorities
Badat, jailed for plotting to blow up a U.S. plane with shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001, was later released for agreeing to be first terrorist supergrass
An al Qaeda supergrass is to give evidence against hate preacher Abu Hamza and show he was a 'terrorist with a global reach'.
British-born Saajid Muhammad Badat will be the star witness when Hamza goes on trial in New York later this year, according to court papers.
Badat, who was jailed for plotting to blow up a U.S. passenger jet with shoe bomber Richard Reid and later released for agreeing to become the first terrorist supergrass, has agreed to give evidence via a video link.
Prosecutors in the U.S. believe Badat's evidence will help convict Hamza.
Assistant U.S. Prosecutor Ian McGinley said in court filings Badat will show Hamza 'was a terrorist leader of global reach, who among other things, sent his young lieutenants around the world to engage in terror training'.
Badat was released from prison in 2010 after striking a deal with British authorities to give evidence in future terror trials.
The 33-year-old had been jailed for 13 years in 2005 for taking part in the plot to blow up a U.S. passenger jet along with Richard Reid.
He admitted being personally briefed on the plan by terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
But Badat backed out at the last minute while shoe bomber Reid went ahead and was foiled by passengers who subdued him before he could explode his bomb on the Paris to Miami flight in 2001.
Reid is serving a life sentence in the SuperMax prison in Colorado and will never be released.
Badat, from Gloucester in the south-west of England, has been re-housed using taxpayers' money and given money towards the cost of office space and education courses to help him get a job.
His mobile phone bills and internet are paid for by Scotland Yard.
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