London, September 12: British prosecutors are seeking to retry three British suspects who are accused of plotting to down trans-Atlantic airliners but were not convicted in previous trials.
They were arrested in August 2006, when, after extensive surveillance, the British security forces felt that the men had hatched a plot to blow up seven airliners flying across the Atlantic Ocean, using everyday household substances.
Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said in a statement released on Friday that another trial was necessary although two earlier cases had ended inconclusively.
His remarks came after earlier in the week the British government had to release a terror suspect held without charge for more than three years, over fears of secret evidence disclosure.
A jury had earlier failed to reach verdicts in the case against the three suspects, Ibrahim Savant, 28, Arafat Waheed Khan, 28, and Waheed Zaman, 25.
The same jury, however, had convicted three other suspects in the case namely Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, of Walthamstow, east London; Assad Sarwar, 29, of High Wycombe; and Tanvir Hussain, 28, of Leyton, east London.
“Having regard to the very serious nature of the charge and the very considerable public interest in having the allegation determined by a jury one way or the other, I have concluded that, in this exceptional case, it is in the public interest to seek a further retrial,” Starmer was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
He admitted that it was unusual for prosecutors to seek a third trial, but said that there is a ‘realistic’ chance of convicting each man on conspiracy to murder charges in a retrial.
—–Agencies