Author: Duncan Gardham and Gordon Rayner
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: October 9, 2008
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3166502/Terror-trial-NHS-doctors-planned-terrorist-spectacular-court-hears.html
Two NHS doctors planned a campaign of "indiscriminate
and wholesale murder" with a series of car bomb attacks across Britain
which culminated in a failed suicide attack on Glasgow Airport, a jury has
been told.
Islamic extremists Bilal Abdulla, 29, and
Mohammed Asha, 27, plotted the "spectaculars" as "punishment"
for Britain's foreign policy in Iraq and Israel, it is alleged.
Iraqi national Abdulla and a third man, Kafeel
Ahmed, tried and failed to blow up cars packed with gas canisters, nails and
petrol outside a nightclub in London's West End in June 2007.
When those devices failed to detonate, Abdulla
and Ahmed launched the alleged suicide attack on Glasgow Airport the following
day. Ahmed, 28, later died from burns he sustained after setting off petrol
bombs which failed to blow up their Jeep.
Saudi-born Asha, a senior house officer in
the neurology department of University Hospital of North Staffordshire, was
not directly involved in either attack but supplied money to buy the cars
and bomb components, was in touch with the other two men at crucial stages
of the plot and may have offered "spiritual and ideological guidance",
the prosecution allege.
Three other cars had been purchased by the
gang and other possible targets including the Old Bailey and the City of London
had been filmed by the plotters, Woolwich Crown Court in south east London
was told.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said: "In
addition to the killing of the innocent the objective was to seize public
attention, both here and internationally. By the carrying out of a series
of explosions, with no warning as to where the next strike would occur, the
terrorists knew the public would be gripped by fear."
He added that the attacks failed through sheer
"good fortune" on the part of the public.
"Apart from the shocking nature of the
activity these two defendants were engaged in, the extraordinary thing is
that both men are doctors," said Mr Laidlaw. "They turned their
attention away from the treating of illness to the planning of murder."
Mr Laidlaw said the plot had not been picked
up by the security services, but "who would have suspected two doctors
to have been involved in such planning?"
Both men deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy
to cause explosions.
The jury was told that the plot, which had
taken six months to plan, was put into action when Ahmed and Abdulla drove
two Mercedes cars packed with gas canisters and nails from their rented house
in Glasgow to London, where they parked outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub
in the Haymarket, which was packed with more than 500 people.
The second of the cars, a blue, L-registered
Mercedes, was parked near a bus stop in Cockspur Street, just south of the
night club, possibly as a secondary device "deliberately placed there
so it would be in the path of those evacuated."
The two men, who had stopped at London's Gateway
services to fill the cars with "as much fuel as possible" on the
way, opened the valves on the gas cylinders and retreated to "a safe
distance".
At around 1.30am on June 29, 2007, the two
men allegedly tried to detonate the car bombs by calling mobile phones inside
the cars which had been rigged up to home-made detonators.
"Had it been executed in the way intended
[it] would have resulted in the loss of many lives particularly among the
young seeking entertainment in the area or on their way home after a night
out," the prosecutor said.
But a miscalculation meant the car bombs failed
to detonate, and the two men decided on a drastic change of plan.
Because the cars had not been destroyed, the
men knew that the police would quickly piece together their identities from
the car registrations, the mobile phones and CCTV images, said Mr Laidlaw.
"The change in approach was that the
next attack was to be a suicide attack," said Mr Laidlaw. "The bombers,
even though the attack was likely to result in their own deaths, were absolutely
determined that the next vehicle would explode. There was to be no repeat
of the failure of the devices in London."
The next day, on Saturday June 30, the busiest
day of the year at Glasgow airport, a Jeep packed with gas canisters was driven
into the main doors of the terminal building with Ahmed at the wheel and Abdulla
in the passenger seat. The men threw down petrol bombs in an effort to ensure
the vehicle exploded.
"Again fortune intervened to save those
inside the terminal," Mr Laidlaw said. "The Jeep became trapped
in the terminal doors and despite the best efforts of the bombers and although
there was a fierce fire, the jeep did not explode."
The jury was told that the men had first met
in 2004 and 2005, whilst staying at an Islamic centre in Cambridge, where
Asha was working at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
At some point the men, who all adhered to
"extreme Islamic beliefs", decided to launch "revengeful"
attacks on Britain, said Mr Laidlaw, because of what they saw as the country's
"persecution" of Muslims in the Middle East.
They spent six months planning the attacks,
it is alleged, with e-mails between Ahmed and Abdulla talking about "experiments"
in February 2007.
In April Abdulla rented a house in a quiet
residential street near Paisley, Renfrewshire, 14 miles from Glasgow, where
they could prepare and arm the vehicles, the court was told.
Ahmed flew back to Britain in May after eight
months in India, and within days he and Abdulla, a junior house officer in
general surgery at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, had carried out
reconnaissance in London, Mr Laidlaw said.
Among the areas they visited were Aldgate
in the City, Leicester Square, Charing Cross, Ludgate Hill, near the Old Bailey,
and Upper St Martin's Lane, near the Haymarket.
They were in frequent contact with Asha during
the visit to London, Mr Laidlaw said.
"It is as if Abdulla was reporting back,
taking instructions from or seeking the approval of (Asha)," said Mr
Laidlaw.
Having bought three Mercedes cars, a BMW 525
and a Jeep through Autotrader magazine, the men bought gas canisters and large
quantities of nails from B&Q and petrol cans from Halfords and duvets
and pillows from Tesco and Asda to cover up the gas cylinders.
Abdulla claims he never intended to kill or
injure anyone, but was simply taking part in a protest, a defence dismissed
as "ludicrous" by the prosecution.
The trial continues.
