Two brothers who organised a plane hijack from Afghanistan to Britain were today jailed for five years each at the Old Bailey in London.
Six of their followers were jailed for 30 months and a seventh for 27 months because he was aged only 18 at the time.
The judge Sir Edwin Jowitt said he accepted that the group, members of the Young Intellectuals of Afghanistan, had initially been fleeing the Taliban regime.
But it had turned into a criminal act after the Ariana 727 plane was forced to fly on to Britain after landing in Moscow.
He said the brothers had prolonged the 70-hour siege at Stansted Airport in Essex in order to make a political point.
The judge, who removed all reporting restrictions on the case, said the jail terms would have been "in double figures" for Ali and Mohammed Safi if it had been a criminal hijacking from the start.
The siege at Stansted was Britain's longest airport stand-off and ended peacefully after the men surrendered.
PA