A "determined terrorist" has been removed from the streets, after an Algerian suspected of being linked to al-Qaeda was found guilty of terrorist charges, police said tonight.
Although tried and convicted as Abbas Boutrab, 27, he has so many aliases that police admit they have no idea who is really is.
Boutrab was found guilty at Belfast Crown Court of possessing articles for purposes connected with terrorism.
They included 25 computer disks of detailed instruction on how to make a bomb and how to get on board a plane to blow up the aircraft.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland sent the instructions to the FBI in America, who followed them and produced a bomb which, when detonated, blew apart a row of airline seats and tore through the aircraft skin beside them.
Boutrab had downloaded the information from the internet on a computer in Belfast Central Library, the trial heard.
He was the first al-Qaeda suspect to be tried in Northern Ireland under the non-jury Diplock court system, which had only previously been used for the trial of Loyalist and Republican terrorists.
Mr Justice Weatherup delivered three guilty verdicts after considering evidence during the six-week trial. He said he would pass sentence on December 19.
The Algerian, who downloaded the information on January 23, 2003, was arrested the following April when the disks were found during an immigration raid on his home at Whitehouse on the northern outskirts of Belfast.