Man linked to UK synagogue attacker jailed over terror plan

A friend of a man who went on a deadly stabbing spree at a Manchester synagogue was jailed for life by a UK court on Thursday for planning a separate terror attack with him.

Jihad Al-Shamie went on a knife rampage targeting a mosque in the northwestern city last October that killed two people. Al-Shamie was later shot dead by police.

His friend Mohammad Bashir, 31, last month pleaded guilty to the preparation of terrorist acts.

Last August, he drove Al-Shamie on a trip to spy on the UK’s Defence Academy, a military education institution in Swindon in the southwest, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence Bashir was involved in the synagogue attack, but said plans to attack the defence ministry facility were “advanced” and would have been deadly if followed through.

“This was a viable plan to attack the Defence Academy in a broadly similar way to that in which Al-Shamie attacked the synagogue,” judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said.