Man Held in Britain Is Accused by U.S. of Jetliner Bomb Plot

Federal authorities Monday accused a 25-year-old student already in custody in Britain of conspiring with attempted “shoe bomber” Richard Reid to bring down a Paris-to-Miami flight, saying he may have had designs on destroying other aircraft and targets.

The seven-count indictment, unsealed in Boston, accuses Sajid Mohammed Badat of attempted murder, trying to destroy an aircraft and aiding and abetting Reid.

A British citizen and Muslim convert, Reid pleaded guilty to trying to set off two bombs in his sneakers while aboard a flight carrying nearly 200 people on Dec. 22, 2001. After passengers and crew members stopped Reid from lighting a fuse, the flight was diverted to Boston’s Logan International Airport, where Reid was taken into federal custody. He is serving a life sentence.

Monday’s indictment mirrors a case that British authorities launched nearly a year ago with the arrest of Badat at his home in Gloucester, where they discovered bomb-making materials similar to those used by Reid. Badat, who is of Pakistani descent, has been in custody ever since. Last month, he pleaded not guilty in a British court to charges of plotting to blow up an aircraft. He is scheduled to go on trial there in February.

“We believe that it is appropriate that he face justice in the United States of America, and we will seek his extradition,” Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said at a news conference announcing the indictment. “We have a keen interest in bringing to justice an individual who the indictment alleges ... his interest in destroying the lives of Americans.”

Ashcroft acknowledged that U.S. authorities probably would have to wait for the British case to run its course before proceeding with their own. If convicted in the United States, Badat faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on charges of conspiracy to commit homicide and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, among other charges.

The indictment alleges that in September 2001, Badat and Reid began communicating through a series of clandestine e-mail accounts -- plotting shoe-bomb attacks against American interests “including but not limited to bombing American aircraft in flight.” According to the indictment, the men traveled to Pakistan and Europe beginning in November 2001, and later obtained false passports on separate occasions at the British embassy in Brussels.

While the indictment is limited to Badat’s activities with Reid, it also alleges that when he was arrested in November 2003, he admitted to British authorities that “he was asked to conduct a shoe bombing like Reid.”

Ashcroft declined to elaborate about other possible targets or co-conspirators, and said the investigation into the case was continuing.

Badat’s case is the latest in a recent spate of anti-terrorism prosecutions brought by the Justice Department.

Democrats have alleged that some of the cases seem timed to burnish the image of the Bush administration before the Nov. 2 presidential election. Monday’s indictment raised questions of political timing because it was unsealed a month after it was returned by a federal grand jury and on the eve of the vice presidential debate.

But Ashcroft denied any political impetus, saying that maximizing the security and safety of the country was “the sole consideration of the Justice Department.” The delay in unsealing the indictment was an accommodation to an ally, the British government, he said.