Bomb plotter in court bid failure

Saajid Badat pulled out of the plot after a "change of heart"

A man jailed for plotting to blow up a plane with a bomb hidden in his shoe has failed in a bid to bring forward his release date.

Saajid Badat, 29, from Gloucester, was jailed for 13 years in 2005 after admitting a conspiracy to bring down a US-bound flight from Amsterdam.

He will be eligible for parole in June 2010 but as a high-risk "Category A" prisoner, is unlikely to be freed.

A High Court judge in London threw out Badat's bid to downgrade his status.

Grave threat

Badat had challenged a Department of Justice ruling that he remains dangerous and must stay in a high-security prison, on the basis it had taken into account "vague" and "unproven" security reports.

Badat said he had had a "wholly genuine change of heart" and, with his extremist past behind him, there is no need to keep him in high security conditions at Full Sutton Prison.

Dismissing Badat's judicial review challenge, Mr Justice Silber said there was "no conclusive evidence" that he no longer posed a grave threat to the public.

Badat had conspired with fellow Briton, Richard Reid, who is serving a life sentence in the US after a failed attempt to bomb a jet.