40 Months In Jail For Man Who Kept Massive Hoard Of Explosives In Edinburgh Flat
A former Syrian doctor discovered with a massive hoard of explosive ingredients and recipes for bombs after a chance find at an Edinburgh flat has been jailed for 40 months. Faris al-Khori was found to have chemicals, large amounts of nails, ball bearings, rods, bolts and nuts and even a bag of toxic beans which can be used to produce the poison Ricin. The 62-year-old also had a small amount of a highly volatile explosive, lead picrate, which was so dangerous that the Forensic Explosives Laboratory refused to take delivery of it and it was destroyed. Emergency services sealed off several streets as they searched his homes in high rise flats Leith and Muirhouse last year. He originally faced Terrorism Act charges but the High Court in Edinburgh heard that the Crown later took the view there was no basis for them. A judge told him that he would have faced a five-year prison sentence for the "very serious" offence, but for his guilty plea. Lady Wolffe told al-Khori that he was "highly educated as a doctor" and added: "It was fairly accepted this is not a terrorist offence." A-Khori has already served almost a year in prison on remand and can expect to be freed in about eight months time. Al-Khori, who was born in Damascus and raised in a Christian family, trained as a doctor in Iraq but has never practised medicine in Britain after arriving here in 1984. He was the full-time carer for his wife, who suffers from schizophrenia, and has had British citizenship since 1998. The haul was only unearthed after firefighters attended a 999 call over a fire at a rubbish chute on the 11th floor of the Fidra Court tower block in the Muirhouse area of the city. After the blaze was extinguished they forced entry to flats to check no one was inside but when they entered a property where Al-Khori was a tenant found items that gave them "cause for concern". The court heard that a bomb scene manager was requested along with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear advisors. A search was carried out at a further block where al-Khori lived with his wife in Leith and a further haul of material was recovered. Both blocks of flats were evacuated and the areas around them sealed off.