LONDON (Reuters) - A British Muslim convert was found guilty of terrorist offences on Friday and sentenced to 15 years jail for possessing secret codes and a hand-written weapons handbook in a case British officials linked to al Qaeda.
British anti-terrorism officials described the man, Andrew Rowe, as an "international warrior" who fought in the Balkans, and said they were probing his links with other militants
Rowe, a married father of four, was picked up in Calais on the French side of the Channel Tunnel as he returned home to London on board a coach from Germany in October 2003.
As a known militant suspect, he had been under surveillance by British police for some time.
They had searched his home three months earlier and found a 20-page instruction manual, written in Rowe's handwriting, which explained in detail how to fire mortars.
A search of his estranged wife's house in Birmingham uncovered a notebook with secret codes using mobile phone numbers and makes to identify airports, airline crew, army bases, weapons and explosives.
There were also video tapes glorifying the September 11 attacks on the United States, including one made by Osama bin Laden.
The prosecution said detectives had also found two socks rolled into balls that had traces of high explosives, which they believed could have been used as a bung for mortars.
"He was in possession of three separate things of the kind likely to be useful for the planning or preparation of an act of terrorism," prosecutor Mark Ellison said.
He was convicted of possessing articles useful for terrorists over the manual and the codes, although the jury at London's Old Bailey Central Criminal Court did not reach a verdict on a separate offence over the socks. He was given two consecutive sentences of 7-1/2 years out of a maximum 10 each.
Rowe converted to Islam in the early 1990s, changing his name to Yusef Abdullah, a top British anti-terrorism official said under condition of anonymity.
In 1995 he fought in Bosnia and suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg. He also visited Pakistan, Croatia, Slovenia, Malaysia, and Thailand, describing himself as a "mujahideen fighter from Britain", the official said.
Rowe, who denied the charges, said he had written up the mortar details on his return to impress girls.
"I wanted to appear a bit of a lad," he told the jury.
"COMMITTED JIHADIST"
But the anti-terrorism official described him as a well-connected and "committed jihadist" who had an important reputation worldwide.
"The evidence suggests he was planning an attack," he said. "Rowe is an international warrior. He has travelled the world in pursuit of his cause. His methodology bears all the hallmarks of al Qaeda."
Anti-terrorist officials also said they were probing his links to Lionel Dumont, an Algerian-born French national suspected of involvement in various attacks including the attempted bombing of a 1996 Group of Seven summit in France.
Dumont was arrested in Germany in December 2003 and extradited the following year to France, where he awaits trial.
Rowe told the court he had met a man in Frankfurt he would not name who had asked him to work as a courier to help victims in Chechnya. He said the man had handed him the secret codes list and said he was aware that there were details of chemicals used in making explosive substances itemised on it. But he said he backed out of the Chechen "aid work" because his wife had given birth and the police were looking for him.
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