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| Driver guilty of firebombing plot | Driver guilty of firebombing plot |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A man has been found guilty of plotting to firebomb a publisher's north London home days before a novel about the Prophet Mohammed was published. | A man has been found guilty of plotting to firebomb a publisher's north London home days before a novel about the Prophet Mohammed was published. |
| Abbas Taj, 30, from Forest Gate, east London, was convicted of conspiracy to recklessly damage property and endanger life at Croydon Crown Court. | Abbas Taj, 30, from Forest Gate, east London, was convicted of conspiracy to recklessly damage property and endanger life at Croydon Crown Court. |
| Two others, Ali Beheshti, 41, and Abrar Mirza, 23, admitted the same offence. | |
| Martin Rynja's home in Lonsdale Square, Islington, was attacked on 27 September last year. Taj had denied the charge. | |
| The attack took place days before the Jewel of Medina, which is about the Prophet's child bride A'isha, was due to be published in the UK. | The attack took place days before the Jewel of Medina, which is about the Prophet's child bride A'isha, was due to be published in the UK. |
| During the trial the court heard how Taj, a minicab driver, waited in a car as the other two men poured diesel through the letterbox and lit a fire at Mr Rynja's home, which was also his office. | During the trial the court heard how Taj, a minicab driver, waited in a car as the other two men poured diesel through the letterbox and lit a fire at Mr Rynja's home, which was also his office. |
| Publishing abandoned | |
| Taj, Behesti, an unemployed man of Tavistock Gardens, Ilford, and Mirza, a mobile phone salesman from Eastfield Road, Walthamstow, were planning to spend the night at Regent's Park Mosque, in north London, as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. | |
| But shortly after they arrived, the trio set out with "fire-making equipment" for Lonsdale Square. | |
| Diesel bought by Beheshti was transferred to the boot of Taj's Honda Accord the evening before the arson attack, the court heard. | |
| Taj and Beheshti, 41, then drove to pick up Mirza near the Queen's Road Mosque in Walthamstow. | |
| Taj had claimed to have "no idea" about the plot and said he was simply "giving a lift" to the two men, an account the jury rejected. | |
| Previously at the trial, prosecutor David Waters QC said publisher Random House had planned to print the novel but abandoned the plans over concerns about offending Muslims. | |
| Speaking at Taj's trial, Mr Rynja said he decided to print the novel in the UK after reading it and speaking to its American author Sherry Jones. | |
| Sentencing was adjourned until 5 or 6 July. |