U.K. Brothers Convicted for Plotting Terrorist Attack

Two brothers who called themselves "The Blackburn Resistance" and filmed Al Qaeda-style propaganda in a park were convicted of terrorist offenses in an English court Friday.

Abbas Iqbal, 24, gathered a stockpile of weapons at the family home in Blackburn in west central England, while his brother, Ilyas, 23, studied and compiled information on guerrilla warfare.

Abbas was found guilty of dissemination of terrorist publications and preparing for acts of terrorism, while Ilyas was convicted of possession of a document likely to be useful to a terrorist.

A third man, Muhammad Ahmad, 26, was cleared of preparing for an act of terrorism.

Abbas was sentenced to two years in jail for dissemination of terrorist material and one year for preparation for acts of terrorism, to run concurrently.

He has already served two-and-a-half years on remand and will be released shortly.

Ilyas was sentenced to 18 months for possession of a document likely to be useful to a terrorist but was released immediately as he too had spent two-and-a-half years on remand.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Gilbert said, "You fancied yourself as a fighter for the cause, but the truth is you were a very low-grade one.

"It would be wrong to pass a long sentence on someone who is obviously more taken with the vanity than the reality."

During the four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury was shown mobile phone footage off all three men dressed in camouflage and crawling across a town center park in broad daylight.

One of them appeared to carry a rifle as he rustled through Corporation Park in Blackburn.

The video was among material found on a mobile phone memory card in Abbas' suitcase when he was arrested as he attempted to board a flight from Manchester Airport to northern Europe in August 2008.

An alleged extremist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was in the company of Abbas at the airport.

Prosecutor Edward Brown said the "promotional collage" was intended to radicalize others abroad.