From WN

A British jury Tuesday convicted a man who arrived at a British airport for a flight with a pipe bomb in his carry-on luggage of trying to smuggle explosives on a plane, The Associated Press reported.

At the time of the incident, Nadeem Muhammad, 43, denied wrongdoing after security staff discovered the device inside the zip lining of his bag at Manchester Airport on Jan. 30.

Muhammad told authorities the bomb, made from masking tape, batteries and a marker pen tube, must have been planted by someone else, the AP reported.

However, prosecutors said Muhammad intended to detonate the device during a Ryanair flight to Italy, the report said.

At the time of the incident, prosecutors revealed security officers didn’t initially believe the bomb was viable, the AP reported. They allowed Muhammad to fly to Italy several days later.

While he was in Italy, the report said, a forensic expert examined the device and judged it to be “crude but potentially viable.” The device contained smokeless propellant, which is normally found in firearms ammunition and made of nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose.

Muhammad, who was born in Pakistan and has an Italian passport, was arrested when he returned to Britain, the report said.

The jury convicted him of possession of explosives with intent to endanger life or property, the report said. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 23.

Crown Prosecution Service counterterrorism chief Sue Hemming said after the verdict was returned “despite extensive investigation, Nadeem Muhammad’s motive for attempting to take this device onto a plane remains unknown,” the AP reported.

“However it is clear that the consequences, had he been successful, could have been disastrous,” Hemming said.

– WN.com, Jack Durschag

For more on this story go to: https://article.wn.com/view/2017/08/08/Report_Man_Convicted_Of_Having_Pipe_Bomb_In_Luggage_At_UK_Ai/