LONDON - A British judge sentenced a Muslim scholar to 13 years in prison Friday after he admitted conspiring with shoebomber Richard Reid to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner in 2001.

Judge Adrian Fulford said he believed that Saajid Badat backed out of an alleged plot with Reid, who was subdued by passengers when he attempted to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001, with 197 people on board.

Prosecutors said Badat, 25, of Gloucester, England, conspired to detonate a bomb in a shoe on a different flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to the United States in a plan coordinated with Reid. But he had second thoughts and never bought a ticket for the flight.

The U.S. destination of that flight was not specified in court.

Badat pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge two months ago. Had he been convicted at trial without pleading guilty, the judge said Friday he would have recommended a sentence of at least 50 years.

But Badat's apparent remorse was a factor in the more lenient sentence, Fulford said.

"Turning away from crime in circumstances such as these constitutes a powerful mitigating factor," the judge said. "It can take considerable courage to plead guilty to offenses of this kind."

Fulford said Badat had been part of a plot to commit a "wicked and inhuman crime" that would have killed hundreds of people.

"Sitting in the civilized and muted surroundings of the Old Bailey (courthouse), it is easy to forget exactly what you planned," he told Badat.

But the judge said he believed Badat had a genuine change of heart. He said he balanced the need for strong deterrents in terrorism cases with Badat's evident remorse.