An American court has sentenced a UK citizen to 40 years in jail for plotting a “horrific” bombing at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Vietnamese-born Minh Quang Pham, 33, received the sentence Friday, after admitting three counts of terrorist-related activity based on his support for the group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Prosecutors said AQAP had directed Pham to detonate a bomb in Heathrow’s arrivals, though he denied that he had ever intended to carry out his plot.
Pham was first arrested in the UK in June 2012 at the request of US authorities and was extradited to the US in early 2015.
In January, he pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to AQAP, one count of conspiring to receive military training from the group and one count of possessing and using a machine gun in furtherance of crimes of violence.
During a hearing in the Manhattan court, Pham called his plan a “terrible mistake” that he regretted.
District Judge…