Two men guilty of terror membership

Taxi driver Habib Ahmed, 29, was caught in possession of two diaries which had details of top al Qaida operatives written in invisible ink - described at Manchester Crown Court as a terrorist's contact book.

The diaries were given to him by co-defendant Rangzieb Ahmed, 33, who was part of a three-man active service cell on an unknown foreign mission.

Rangzieb Ahmed, no relation to Habib, was also found guilty of directing terrorism - the first person to be convicted of the offence in the UK.

Among the names and phone numbers in the diaries were al Qaida's suspected former no 3, Hamza Rabia, the court heard.

Habib Ahmed's wife, Mehreen Haji, 28, was cleared of two counts of arranging funding for the purposes of terrorism.

Her husband, from Cheetham Hill, north Manchester, was also found not guilty of attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2006.

The jury of seven women and five men found Habib guilty of al Qaida membership on an 11-1 majority verdict.

He was also convicted of one count of professing to belong to al Qaida when he gave an interview to the Sunday Times newspaper in 2002.

Rangzieb, of Fallowfield, south Manchester, was cleared of possessing a rucksack containing traces of explosives for the use of terrorism. Both men, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read, will be sentenced on Friday.