Man with bomb plot past defends election candidacy

A man who was convicted of a terrorist offence has defended standing in local elections this year, saying he understands "people's speculation and concern".

Shahid Butt was found guilty of a plot to blow up the British consulate in Yemen in 1999, but said the charges were fabricated and that he was tortured into making a confession.

Both Labour and Conservative politicians raised concerns about his suitability when he announced his plan to stand as an independent candidate, in the Sparkhill ward on the Birmingham City Council.

Butt said: "If they think I'm an extremist then I can't change that opinion - at the end of the day it comes down to the people of Sparkhill."

Butt, who was also found guilty of plotting to blow up an Anglican church and a Swiss-owned hotel in Yemen, was one of eight Britons and two Algerians convicted in 1999.

During the trial, the prosecution said the plots were part of a campaign by militants to drive western influence out of Yemen and set up an Islamic state.

At the six-month trial, the judge dismissed their claims they had confessed under torture.

Butt, who was 33 at the time, was sentenced to five years in prison.

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the leader of The Muslim Parliament in Britain at the time, said the trial had been a "travesty of justice".

Speaking to BBC Politics Midlands this week, Butt said: "I've always maintained from day one, that these were false, fabricated charges that were put against me, I was tortured into signing a confession."

Butt said: "As far as the law is concerned, the law doesn't bar me in the UK from standing as a councillor."

He accepted his past conviction would be divisive and said: "Obviously, its a very emotive thing when you hear the words 'convicted terrorist', and I understand people's speculation and concern.

"I'm not everybody's cup of tea, not everybody's going to agree with what I have to say or who I am or whatever. That's fine."

Butt, who will be standing as part of the Independent Candidates Alliance, said he was seeking election now because he wanted to represent the community he had been part of all his life.

Butt has been a controversial figure more recently, when he encouraged Birmingham Muslims to protest against a football match in November between Aston Villa and the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.

He was accused of using language which might have encouraged physical confrontations.

Social media footage from the protest showed Butt saying: "Muslims are not pacifists… if somebody comes into your face, you knock his teeth out."

But he said: "The last I checked, we lived in a democracy where we are allowed to protest."

He also said his comments had been taken out of context and that he was speaking about the protesters' right to self-defence, if they felt their life was in danger.

"I was saying, especially to the youth, that look, you are allowed to defend yourself," he said.

Reacting to the announcement that Butt would stand, Sharon Osbourne suggested on social media she might stand in the Birmingham elections on 7 May too.

The leader of the city's Conservatives, Robert Alden, invited her to join them to "help keep extremists out of Birmingham City Council".

He said his message to Osbourne, if she wanted to join them, was "just give us a call".

Sureena Brackenridge, the Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East, said: "I am stunned that someone who was found to be a terrorist, who planned to blow up a British consulate, is now putting himself in a position to represent people of Sparkhill."

Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Yardley in Birmingham told ITV News: "The idea that people who have been convicted of terror offences underplaying that as having had a colourful past and standing to represent part of my family in that area, I find that absolutely appalling."

A full list of candidates for the Sparkhill ward will be available on the BBC website once it is finalised.

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