KIEV, October 25 (RIA Novosti) – A Ukrainian has been sentenced to life in prison for preparing terror attacks near mosques in the United Kingdom and stabbing to death an elderly man in a racially motivated attack, local police said Friday.
Engineering student Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, from Dnepropetrovsk in southern Ukraine, was told by a judge at a London court on Friday that he would not be considered for release until he served at least 40 years behind bars.
Lapshyn, who was on a 12-month job placement at software company Delcam, in Birmingham, was arrested in the West Midlands in July. He admitted on Monday to killing pensioner Mohammed Saleem, 82, in April as the man walked home from his local mosque.
Over the next few months, Lapshyn planted homemade bombs at three mosques in the area. No one was reported injured.
The judge said Lapshyn was clearly planning to plant and detonate more devices in the hope that he would “ignite racial conflict and cause Muslims to leave the area” where he was living.
