LONDON, May 25 (UPI) -- A homegrown terror cell with alleged links to al-Qaida plotted to attack a major London nightclub, a British court heard Thursday.
Jurors heard secret surveillance recordings in which two of the defendants, Omar Khyam, 24, and Jawad Akbar, 22, discussed an attack on the Ministry of Sound, a well-known venue in the center of the British capital.
Khyam appears to suggest targeting utility companies with the help of recruits with inside knowledge, to cut off essential supplies around the country.
But Akbar says the Ministry of Sound was a softer target for an attack.
The prosecution claimed the recording was made at Akbar's then home in west London on Feb 22. 2004.
On the tape, Akbar suggests getting a job at "the biggest nightclub in central London where no-one can even turn round and say "oh they were innocent" those slags dancing around?"
Khyam replies: "If you get a job in a bar, yeah, or a club, say the Ministry of Sound, what are you planning to do there then?"
Akbar then says: "Blow the whole thing up," to which Khyam responds: "That's what I'm saying."
Gary Smart, the Ministry of Sound's general manager, said in a statement read to court that 1.5 million people had visited it since it opened.
"If the Ministry of Sound was to be subjected to terrorist attack, then it's clear that the consequences could be devastating with such a large number of people in such a confined space," he said.
Akbar, Khyam and his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, Waheed Mahmood, 34, Salahuddin Amin, 31, Anthony Garcia, 23, and Nabeel Hussain, 21, deny conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between January 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004. Four of the men also deny possessing chemicals intended for bomb-making.
