Doctors 'plotted wholesale murder'

Date: 09 Oct 2008

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   Doctors 'plotted wholesale murder'

 
Press Assoc. - 1 hour 4 mins agoTwo NHS doctors plotted "indiscriminate and wholesale" murder in a series of car bombings across Britain, a court was told.

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Bilal Abdulla, 28, and Mohammed Asha, 29, were members of an Islamic terrorist cell, Woolwich Crown Court in London was told.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said they wanted to kill the innocent and seize public attention around the world.

Mr Laidlaw said: "Their plan was to carry out a series of attacks on the public using bombs concealed in vehicles. No warnings were to be given and the cars were to be positioned in busy urban areas.

"In short, these men were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and a wholesale scale. In addition to the killing of the innocent, the objective of course was to seize public attention both here in this country and internationally."

Mr Laidlaw was opening the prosecution against the two men accused of plotting car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

Iraqi-born Abdulla was arrested after a burning Jeep was driven into the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport on June 30 last year. Jordanian Asha, a neurologist, was arrested on the M6 motorway in Cheshire later that day.

In the early hours of June 29, two Mercedes cars containing petrol, gas cylinders and nails were driven into London's West End. One was discovered outside the Tiger, Tiger nightclub in Haymarket, causing hundreds of revellers to be evacuated. The second car, parked in adjoining Cockspur Street, was towed to a nearby car pound. It was made safe later that day.

The jury was also told the alleged terrorists conducted a reconnaissance trip several weeks before launching their attacks, travelling from Scotland to London in a rented car, which was filmed circling the area around the Old Bailey during the early hours of May 20.

Abdulla, of Houston, Glasgow, and Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.

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