April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Five British Muslims were convicted today of plotting to carry out a deadly bombing spree across the U.K., ending the country's longest terrorism trial.

Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the group, and four other men were found guilty on the London jury's 27th day of deliberations. The men were all given life sentences by Justice Michael Astill.

``You have betrayed the country that has given you every advantage in life,'' Judge Astill said during sentencing.

The defendants, who have been on trial since March 2006, were charged with planning to use homemade fertilizer bombs on targets including London nightclubs, trains, and the gas and power network. Some of the suspects had close links with two of the four suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London on July 7, 2005, a fact that news organizations were barred by court order from reporting until today's verdicts.

Khyam, 25, Waheed Mahmood, 35, Jawad Akbar, 23, Anthony Garcia, 25, and Salahuddin Amin, 32, were convicted at London's Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life. None of the men will be considered for parole before they have served at least 17 1/2 years in jail and may never be released, Justice Astill said.

Khyam's brother Shujah Mahmood, 20, and Nabeel Hussain, 21, were acquitted.

`Relieved'

Hussain's lawyer, Imran Khan, said his client was ``relieved'' by the verdict. Hussain has ``never been an extremist or believed in extremism,'' Khan said.

``He's lost three years of his life and he'll never get them back,'' Khan said in an interview televised.

Later, reading a statement on behalf of the five convicted men, Khan said the trial was marred by ``coached witnesses'' and ``an atmosphere of hostility against Muslims at home and abroad.''

``We did not pose any threat to the security of this country,'' the men said in the statement. ``It is no offense to be young, Muslim and angry at injustices.''

Amin proclaimed his innocence in a statement read by his lawyer outside the court.

``An outrageous confidence trick has been played on the jury and against me,'' he said through his lawyer Tayab Ali. ``I was convicted by false evidence and the fruits of torture.''

Prior to his arrest in the U.K. Amin was detained for 10 months by Pakistan's security services. The British government did nothing to help him while he was there, even though he is a British citizen, he said.

`Homegrown'

The trial was the first involving what prosecutors and police described as a ``homegrown'' Muslim terror cell plotting to carry out mass murder in the U.K. Several of the men were linked with al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks. All of them denied the charges against them.

Even with the convictions, the case may prompt an inquiry into Britain's counter-terrorism efforts. Under rules designed to ensure a fair trial, news organizations were barred from reporting the links between the Khyam terror cell and Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, who took part in the July 7 attacks.

Police were monitoring meetings between Khyam, Khan and Tanweer as early as February 2004, 16 months before the July 7 bombings. Police have said they believed Khan and Tanweer were focused on financial crime, to raise money for jihadi causes, and didn't pose an immediate threat. The jury was never told of the connections between the two terrorist cells to prevent prejudicing their deliberations.

Inquiry

The revelations prompted opposition politicians including David Davis, the home affairs spokesman for the Conservative party, to call for an inquiry.

U.K. Home Secretary John Reid said a public investigation would unnecessarily burden security services.

``Our responsibility as a government is to try and minimize the chances of any other group or family suffering the way the families of the 7/7 dead did suffer,'' Reid told lawmakers today. ``I have not rejected the idea of an independent inquiry; I have rejected the idea at this stage of a public inquiry because of the energy and resources of the police and agencies.''

Most of the seven men on trial admitted supporting jihad, or ``holy war,'' in places like Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kashmir. Several had traveled to Pakistan for training in weapons and explosives. One of the men, Amin, had links to senior al-Qaeda figures and at one stage made inquiries about buying a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' from the Russian mafia, prosecutors claimed.

Ministry of Sound

While police say the group hadn't settled on a definite target, sites discussed included London nightclub the Ministry of Sound and Bluewater, a 330-store shopping complex southeast of London.

The men were arrested during overnight raids in March 2004, following one of British anti-terrorist forces' biggest investigations, known as ``Operation Crevice.''

U.K. intelligence officials have said they are monitoring 1,600 other individuals and as many as 30 possible terror plots aimed at causing death and damage to the British economy. Six men are on trial for allegedly plotting to carry out a series of deadly explosions on London's public transit network, two weeks to the day after the July 7 attacks.

Much of the case against the seven Crevice defendants centered on the testimony of Mohammed Babar, a U.S. citizen who has pleaded guilty in New York to terrorism-related offences, including conspiring to provide material support to the U.K. bomb plot.

Babar Testimony

During 17 days on the witness stand, Babar provided a detailed account of the group's activities, from their military training in Pakistan to efforts to obtain fertilizer and detonators for explosives. Aluminum powder for the bombs' ignition was eventually found in a cookie tin, stashed away in a disused gardening shed in the back of one of the group's homes.

Khyam, a cricket enthusiast from Crawley, south of London, organized military exercises around the Afghan border to teach the group what he'd learned, the jury was told. Another suspect, Waheed Mahmood, obtained detailed plans of the U.K.'s gas and electricity network while working for a contractor for utility National Grid Transco.

At one point during the trial, prosecutors played a taped conversation between Akbar and Khyam, where they discussed targeting a popular London nightspot.

``No one can turn around and say they were innocent, those slags dancing around,'' Akbar says on the recording.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Lumley in London at jlumley1@bloomberg.net; Megan Murphy in London at mmurphy41@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 30, 2007 12:01 EDT