Court told of plot by Malaysians to hijack plane

PETALING JAYA: A British newspaper published a report today that evidence of a plot by Malaysian religious extremists to hijack a passenger jet in a 9/11-style attack is being investigated in connection with the disappearance of MH370.
The Telegraph quoted a convicted al-Qaeda member as telling a court in London last week that four to five Malaysian men had been planning to take control of a plane, using a bomb hidden in a shoe to blow open the cockpit door.
It said security experts had said the evidence from Saajid Badat, a British-born Muslim from Gloucester, was
"credible".
The Telegraph quoted him as saying that he had met the Malaysian jihadists – one of whom was a pilot – in Afghanistan and given them a shoe bomb to use to take control of an aircraft.
In evidence in a court case last Tuesday, Saajid was quoted as saying that he had been instructed at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan to give a shoe bomb to the Malaysians.
Giving evidence at the trial in New York of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Saajid said: "I gave one of my shoes to the Malaysians. I think it was to access the cockpit."
The newspaper, which said that Saajid, who spoke via video link and is in hiding in the UK, had told the court that the Malaysian plot was being masterminded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of 9/11.
"According to Saajid, Khalid kept a list of the world's tallest buildings and crossed out New York's Twin Towers (of the World Trade Centre) after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks with hijacked airliners as 'a joke to make us laugh'," it said.
According to the newspaper, Saajid told the court that he had asked some of those behind the alleged plot if he could give them "one of my bombs to open a cockpit door?".
It said Saajid, who was jailed for 13 years in 2005 for his part in a conspiracy with the "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to blow up a transatlantic jet, had given similar evidence in 2012.
The Telegraph said that in other words, Saajid's claims were first made long before the disappearance of Flight MH370.