Northern Ireland's first al-Qaeda suspect was convicted yesterday of downloading internet instructions on how to blow-up a passenger jet.
Mr Justice Weatherup told Abbas Boutrab (27) that while downloading such plans and his use of false identities did not amount to terrorist activity in themselves, their combined use did. He will be sentenced next month. PSNI Det Supt Esmond Adair who led the case said last night that Boutrab was wanted in the Republic for attempted murder in 2002.
Convicting the Algerian, the Belfast Crown Court judge said: "I am satisfied that his possession of the material was not out of curiosity, but was for terrorist purposes."
He added that Boutrab's lies about having a broken cassette player, his possession of DIY tools, and having false passports and identities were all "evidence supportive of guilt".
During his six-week trial which ended last month, the Algerian, charged under three difference aliases, denied he had downloaded, collected and possessed Islamic terrorist details from the internet on to 25 disks "for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism".
Boutrab was also convicted of having a false Italian passport which was seized from his Whitehouse flat, on the outskirts of Belfast, together with the computer disks on his arrest on April 13th, 2003.
Mr Justice Weatherup said he was satisfied as to Boutrab's guilt of "possession of the information for a terrorist purpose", he was also "satisfied that he had no reasonable excuse for collecting the information" in the first instance.
The judge rejected defence claims that Boutrab was an innocent who had accessed the material "out of curiosity". Instead, he accepted the prosecution case that far from being the "drifter" he claimed, he had been travelling around Europe for a decade using several false identities, "to conceal himself as he carried out his sinister activities".
The court also heard that during his police interviews Boutrab refused to deny that he was involved in Islamic terrorism or was part of an al-Qaeda network.
Initially when asked about Islamic terrorism and whether he was involved, Boutrab told detectives: "I am not answering that" and gave a "similar reply" when questioned about being a member of an al-Qaeda network.
At one stage his solicitor stated, "he has asked me to say in relation to the aliases, some of which he accepts, that they were used simply to facilitate his drifter lifestyle throughout Europe - not for terrorist purposes".
The conviction of Boutrab followed a long and complicated intelligence-led investigation by detectives from the PSNI crime operations department, the security services, the FBI and police forces in the Republic, France and Holland.
Boutrab did not give any evidence on his own behalf during his trial and, police said, gave little or noting away during interrogation.