LONDON - A British judge sentenced a top Al Qaeda operative Tuesday to life in prison for a trans-Atlantic plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank and landmark London hotels. Judge Neil Butterfield denounced Dhiren BarotÂ’s plot to slaughter hundreds _ if not thousands _ of wholly innocent men, women and children,Â’ and called the plan sophisticated, deadly and under way. Seven others linked to Barot are to be tried in Britain next year.BarotÂ’s sentence provides for the possibility of parole after 40 years. It was not known if he intended to appeal the sentence.
'You have chosen to use your life to bring death and destruction to the Western world,Â’ Butterfield told Barot, who stared blankly as he heard the sentence in LondonÂ’s Woolwich Crown Court. 'You were planning to bring indiscriminate carnage, bloodshed and butchery ... on an unprecedented scale. ... I am satisfied that unless you had been stopped it was only a matter of time before the grim reality of your plans were felt.Â’
The sentence was one of the harshest in Britain, given that the mass killings were thwarted before they occurred.