LONDON, England (CNN) -- Three of the men charged with plotting to bomb transatlantic passenger flights pleaded guilty at a London court Monday to conspiracy to cause explosions, report UK news agencies.
High security was in evidence as the suspects appeared at a London magistrates court in 2006.
Assad Sarwar, 28, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27 and Tanvir Hussain, 27, all entered guilty pleas at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London, reported the UK Press Association.
At the same time they also pleaded guilty to creating public nuisance by releasing videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in the UK, the agency reported.
Umar Islam, 30, and Ibrahim Savant, 27, two of their co-defendants, also entered guilty pleas to the nuisance charges, added PA.
A jury must still decide if the five men, along with three others, are guilty of conspiring to murder thousands of people by smuggling home-made liquid bombs onto passenger jets.
Prosecutors allege that the five men planned a series of coordinated suicide attacks on planes bound from London Heathrow for the United States and Canada in 2006.
At the time, authorities said the suspects planned to mix a sports drink with a gel-like substance to create an explosive that could then be triggered with an iPod or cell phone. All of those items could have been carried on board without raising any suspicions.
A police inquiry into the alleged plot, and tighter restrictions on the items that airline passengers can carry onto planes, caused widespread disruption to flights to and from Britain.
The court heard that the bombs were being made at a flat in Walthamstow, north east London, where martyrdom videos featuring six gang members were also shot.
Earlier in the trial Ali and Sarwar said they were making a documentary about the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon, PA reported, and that the explosives and videos were linked to a related publicity stunt.
The explosives were planned for a stunt at the Houses of Parliament, although, Sarawr told the court, airports, fuel terminals and other refineries were also considered.
Hussein told the court that although he agreed to feature in a suicide-bomber style video, the idea of a bomb plot for publicity purposes had shocked him, PA said.
Paula Newton, CNN's international security correspondent, said that the guilty pleas were a formality because the men had already admitted their guilt through their defense. "They will not be walking free from this trial," she said.
The key issue, said Newton, was whether the jury found the accused guilty of conspiracy to murder, which the men have denied.
The eight men on trial are: Abdulla Ahmed Ali, aka Ahmed Ali Khan, 27, of Walthamstow, Assad Sarwar, 28, of High Wycombe, Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Leyton, east London, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking, Essex, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, north London, Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, of Walthamstow, Waheed Zaman, 24, of Walthamstow and Umar Islam, aka Brian Young, 30, of Hackney, east London.
From the Blogs: 
Sit tight, we're getting to the good stuff
