Minh Quang Pham sentenced to 40 years in prison for bomb plot

Nate Raymond/WABX

A Vietnamese-born man who U.S. authorities say was instructed by a top figure with al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate to carry out a suicide attack at London’s Heathrow Airport was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Minh Quang Pham, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan after pleading guilty in January to charges he provided material support to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Minh Quang Pham sentenced to 40 years in prision for providing support to and receiving training from terrorists. (Photo: Department of Justice)

Nathan cited Pham’s renunciation of the militant group as a reason for not imposing a 50-year term sought by prosecutors. But she said he deserved more than the mandatory minimum 30 years due to his role in the “horrific” bomb plot.

Pham, a graphic artist who left behind a pregnant wife in Britain to travel to Yemen in 2010, has admitted he helped prepare the Islamist militant group’s online propaganda magazine, Inspire, and received military-type training.

But prosecutors said he did more than just that for the group, agreeing to carry out a never-executed plot to construct and detonate an explosive device in the arrival area at Heathrow after returning to Britain from Yemen.

Prosecutors said Pham was trained on how to carry out the suicide attack by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric who became a leader in the group. He was killed in a September 2011 U.S. drone attack.

On his return to London in July 2011, Pham was detained by authorities at Heathrow, who discovered items including a live round of armor-piercing ammunition. He was arrested at the U.S. government’s request in June 2012.

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