A taxi driver from Wembley who was jailed for the murder of a US solider in Iraq has had his jail term cut, but failed to clear his name.
Anis Abid Sardar, 39, was found guilty of having a hand in building a bomb that killed Sergeant First Class Randy Johnson in September 2007.
The soldier died when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Baghdad, but the black cab driver said he was only in the country to protect fellow Sunni Muslims from Shia militias.
Sardar was convicted in May last year at Woolwich Crown Court , and was jailed for life with a minimum of 38 years.
A bid was subsequently launched at the Court of Appeal to have his conviction overturned, claiming the jury could not be certain the bomb that killed Sgt Johnson was made by Sardar, despite being linked to four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) found nearby.
Sir Brian Leveson, sitting for the appeal, said on Thursday (November 3): “The number and features of the four IEDs were such that it was open to the jury to conclude that they were manufactured at the same time, by the same team, and that Sardar was involved in that exercise.”
Sardaer, a married father of two, had his appeal thrown out on Thursday by three senior judges.
Sir Brian, Lord Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Holroyde said there was sufficient evidence to convict.
Sardar has also argued that the judge at his trail was wrong to exclude anonymous evidence which he said back his claim that he was protecting Sunni Muslims.
However, this claim was also dismissed by the judges.
Sir Brian did rule that the 38-year sentence was too harsh, and reduced the minimum time Sardar will serve to 35 years.
Sardar can now only be released before his sentence is up if he can convince a parole board he is not a danger to the public.
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