Appeal denied to fertilizer bomb planners

LONDON, July 23 (UPI) -- A three-judge panel Wednesday rejected the appeal of five men who received life sentences for plotting a series of fertilizer bomb attacks in Britain.

Criticisms about the trial judge's handling of the case were raised on appeal, but Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge said, "The many and varied criticisms of the summing-up are unfounded," The Guardian reported.

Judge said the trial judge exercised care in his approach to the "unenviable task of summarizing the evidence ... in the course of this mammoth trial."

Omar Khyam, Waheed Mahmood and Jawad Akbar from Crawley in West Sussex, Anthony Garcia of Barkingside in east London and Salahuddin Amin of Luton in Bedfordshire were found guilty last year of conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life, the British newspaper reported.

The men were convicted of plotting to bomb public places such as the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London and the Bluewater shopping center in Kent by using fertilizer bombs.

The panel did reduce the minimum sentences several men were told at trial they had to serve.