A man has been convicted of taking a pipe bomb onto a Ryanair flight after the jury in his trial heard he was likely to have been planning a suicide attack.
Nadeem Muhammad, 43, was found guilty of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life or property after a pipe bomb was found in his hand luggage at Manchester airport.
But it is understood investigators concluded he did not pose a danger to national security and no evidence has been found by counter-terrorism officials tying him in any shape or form to extremism.
Muhammad, from Bury, Greater Manchester, cried in the dock at Manchester crown court after the jury returned its verdict on Tuesday.
When the pipe bomb was found, Muhammad was questioned, but ultimately allowed to travel on. Security officials at Manchester airport had at first not believed the bomb was viable. Muhammad was questioned by counter-terrorism police, released and allowed to board another flight to Bergamo, near Milan, five days later.
The court had heard he was planning to board a Ryanair flight to Italy on 30 January when security officers found the device was made of masking tape, batteries, the tube of a marker pen, pins and wires, and in the zip lining of his small suitcase.
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Source: The Guardian.
