The charges stemmed from the discovery of traces of ricin in a London apartment in January 2003, a find that sparked fears of an Al Qaeda cell with designs to strike in Britain.
In the end, only one of the nine suspects was convicted. A jury on Friday acquitted four suspects of conspiracy to murder, and yesterday prosecutors dropped charges against four others -- three Algerian men and a Libyan.
After the raid on a north London apartment on Jan. 14, 2003, Bourgass went on the run to Manchester, in northwestern England. He stabbed to death Detective Constable Stephen Oake and knifed three other policemen during a raid on a Manchester property nine days later. He was convicted of Oake's murder, attempted murder of two other police officers, and the wounding of another. Detectives said Bourgass had been trained in camps in Afghanistan run by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
According to alleged co- conspirator Mohamed Meguerba, who cooperated with authorities after he was arrested in Algeria in 2002, Bourgass was planning to smear poison on the door handles of cars and buildings in London.
Meguerba is awaiting trial in Algeria on allegations of terrorist offenses.
