Pakistani man convicted in U.S. court for al Qaeda plot

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Pakistani MAN (MAN.XE)was convicted on Wednesday on U.S. charges of participating in an al Qaeda plot to attack targets in Europe and the United States.

Abid Naseer, 28, was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn of providing and conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device.

Naseer remained expressionless as the jury returned the verdict after less than two days of deliberation. He faces life in prison. His lawyer said after the conviction that he would appeal.

U.S. prosecutors said Naseer, 28, headed up an al Qaeda cell plotting to bomb a shopping center in Manchester, England, in April 2009.

The proposed attack was one of three plots affiliated al Qaeda cells were working on, along with attacks against the New York City subway system and a Copenhagen newspaper, prosecutors said.

Naseer was convicted nearly six years after he was first arrested in a British anti-terrorism operation. While British authorities ultimately never charged Naseer, he was later indicted in the United States and extradited in 2013.

Naseer represented himself at trial. He denied any affiliation with al Qaeda or any plot.

Less than a week ago, a Manhattan federal jury convicted Khalid al-Fawwaz, a Saudi man prosecutors described as a trusted adviser to Osama bin Laden, in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

(Reporting by Sebastien Malo in New York, additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Tom Brown, Cynthia Osterman and Noeleen Walder)