‘Mastermind’ of RAF Fairford terror plot ‘directed other attacks from behind bars’

Detailed summary

Mohammad al-Saadi, 32, is accused of masterminding the failed terror plot at RAF Fairford from his New York prison cell using coded messages in Facetime chats to his family

The man accused of masterminding the failed terror plot at RAF Fairford allegedly ran the operation from his New York prison cell using coded messages.

Mohammad al-Saadi, 32, was extradited to the US in May over charges linking him to around 20 attempted terror attacks across Europe, including a campaign of antisemitic fire-bombings in London.

Despite being in solitary confinement al-Saad was able to coordinate with two other men back in Iran, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, ahead of the planned strike on the Gloucestershire RAF base, US prosecutors said.

An eight-count indictment unsealed in a federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday alleges that al-Saadi passed 'coded messages' to the pair during phone calls from jail ahead of the plot.

Prosecutors also claimed that al-Saadi also used FaceTime calls to his mother and sister in Iraq to get messages to his associates Al-Hassani and Mohajeri.

In a call to his family from the Brooklyn jail, al-Saadi told family he owed money to Mohajeri, asking them to pass messages to him about 'work, a term prosecutors say he used to describe terrorist activity.

“What are they doing about all our old work?” he asked his sister on July 30, according to the indictment. He asked her whether it had been cancelled or just put on pause the document claims, to which she responded that “it isn't cancelled”.

In a later call, al-Saadi instructed al-Hassani to “give him money so we can do it” after being told his co-conspirator had been transferred to the “international section”.

Al-Saadi was allowed phone and FaceTime communication with his family, although each call was monitored and recorded by the FBI. He was eventually limited to just one call per month lasting an hour after the US government cited concerns al-Saadi was using coded language, including “work” and “a job”.

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