Specialist Operations investigations

38/11
26 May 2011
MPA briefing paper 38/2011

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

The following is from report 10 presented to the Counter-Terrorism and Protective Services Sub-committee meeting on 19 May 2011.

Summary

During the period April 2010 – March 2011 SO15 investigations have resulted in a total of 127 arrests. 29 defendants have been convicted at court with an estimated 123 Years Imprisonment (4 with Life sentences with a minimum to serve) issued in sentences. Given the protracted nature of these investigations the initial arrests of some of those convicted will have taken place a year or two ago. Similarly, whilst all the relevant arrests will have commenced as a result of a counter-terrorism investigation, the resultant convictions may not have been for purely terrorist related offences.

Notably, Rajib Karim, Operation Clutch, was jailed for thirty years in March 2011, having been found guilty of four charges of preparing acts of terrorism. Karim used his position at British Airways to access sensitive information in offices in Newcastle and Heathrow and to pass it to terrorists in the Yemen who were plotting to destroy planes on flights to the USA. He was convicted following a lengthy and thorough investigation by Counter Terrorism Command, who were praised by the trial judge for their painstaking work in decrypting three hundred of Karim’s coded messages, which were the most sophisticated yet encountered.

On 3 Nov 2010 Roshanara CHOUDHRY, Operation Ubation, was sentenced to life imprisonment (minimum 15 years to serve) for the attempted murder of Stephen TIMMS Member of Parliament for East Ham constituency.

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