BLACKBURN terrorist turned al Qaeda supergrass Saajid Badat is set to give evidence in two major US trials.

Arrested in the town in a high-profile raid in 2003, he had his 13-year-prison sentence cut to 11 years in 2012 after agreeing to give evidence against his former conspirators.

Released after six years of his sentence and put into witness protection by the UK security services, the would-be ‘shoe bomber’ gave evidence in April 2012 by videotape in the New York trial of Adis Medunjanin.

Medunjanin was convicted of the 2009 plot to attack New York's subways with suicide bombs.

Now US Justice Department and security sources have revealed Badat will be a key witness in two more trials.

The first involves hate preacher Abu Hamza, claimed to be a 'terrorist with a global reach'.

The second deals with al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden's son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghayth.

As well as the two New York trials, Badat could be called to give evidence against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

All his appearances will be by video-link as he fears arrest if he sets foot in the United States.

The Gloucester-born 33-year-old arrived in Blackburn in December 2001 and rose through the ranks of local mosques, studying at the College of Islamic Knowledge and Guidance, in Moss Street, Little Harwood, before becoming radicalised.