January 6, 2005
By Martyn Kent
Barnett Times - UK
A Hendon businessman offered to sell 200 ground-to-air missiles for use in a terrorist plot in the United States, an American court heard this week.
Hemant Lakhani, 69, allegedly told an undercover FBI agent that the rockets could be used to shoot down ten to 15 airliners simultaneously on the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist atrocities.
Prosecutor Stuart Rabner said: "This case is about a man who enthusiastically tries to sell 200 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles to people who he believed would use them to shoot down planes in the sky with people aboard as part of a terrorist attack on the United States. He spent more than a year-and-a-half eagerly trying to make this deal happen."
Lakhani, of Wykeham Road, Hendon, also stands accused of offering tanks, guns and dirty bombs' to an agent posing as a Somali terrorist.
He denies the accusations and claims he is the victim of an entrapment operation by overzealous intelligence agents desperate to find terrorists after the World Trade Centre attacks. Friends and neighbours in Wykeham Road this week described him as a Del-Boy' character who was lured into a set-up by the prospect of a multi-million dollar pay day.
"He was a soft target for the authorities looking for scapegoats after 9/11," said Thant Aye, a neighbour.
After 16 months in prison, Lakhani this week appeared before a jury in New Jersey, on charges including attempting to provide material support to terrorists, unlawful brokering of foreign defence articles and money-laundering. His wife Kusum, who helped found the Sangam Association of Asian Women in Burnt Oak , is understood to have flown to America for the trial.
Lakhani faces 25 years in prison if found guilty. The trial is expected to last ten weeks.
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