LONDON (The Guardian) -- Four men have pleaded guilty to offences linked to a plot to kidnap and murder a Muslim member of the British armed forces and to supply equipment to terrorists.

Parviz Khan, 37, the ringleader of the group, earlier this month admitted a series of charges including the beheading plot, a court heard Tuesday.
The “fanatic” intended to capture his victim and behead him “like a pig” in a lock-up garage, Leicester crown court heard. Khan then planned to release the footage of the killing to the public.
Outlining the plot, Nigel Rumfitt QC said Khan hoped to kidnap the soldier in central Birmingham with the help of drug dealers.
“He would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig,” Rumfitt told the jury. “This atrocity would be filmed ... and the film released to cause panic and fear within the British armed forces and the wider public.”
Rumfitt said Khan, of Alum Rock, Birmingham, and three other men, were not standing trial because they had pleaded guilty to charges a fortnight ago.
Basiru Gassama, 30, admitted knowing about the kidnap plot and not informing the authorities.
Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44, pleaded guilty to helping Khan supply equipment to terrorists operating on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Reporting of the guilty pleas had been restricted until the start of the trial Tuesday of two other men charged alongside the four.
Amjad Mahmood, 32, denies knowing about Khan’s soldier plot between April 2006 and February 2007 and failing to disclose the information.
Zahoor Iqbal, 30, denies possessing a document or record likely to be useful to a terrorist, namely a computer resource called Encyclopedia Jihad.
Both men have also pleaded not guilty to engaging in conduct with the intention of assisting in the commission of acts of terrorism between April 2006 and February 2007.
The court heard that Khan, whose home was bugged by security services, had been active in gathering military equipment such as night-vision goggles.
During 2005 and 2006 he visited a freight company in Birmingham to organize shipments weighing up to a ton to be sent to Pakistan.
The cargoes, listed as aid for earthquake victims, included sleeping bags, walkie-talkies and waterproof map-holders ordered by his terrorist contacts.
Rumfitt said: “Khan’s activities came to the attention of the security services. His home was bugged and conversations between him and his visitors were recorded and you will hear transcripts of the relevant recordings.
“The prosecution say that Parviz Khan is a fanatic. He is a man who has the most violent and extreme views. He was enraged by the idea that there were Muslim soldiers in the British army, some of them Muslims from the Gambia in West Africa.”
The jury was told Khan had wanted Gassama to help him identify a suitable soldier to kidnap. But the Gambian national never came up with details of a target, the prosecution said.
The plot was thwarted by police and the MI5 security service in January last year. The men were arrested after a series of high-profile raids in Birmingham by the West Midlands police counter-terrorism unit.
The trial of Mahmood and Iqbal is expected to last for several months.