Plot accused 'looked ill' at news
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7690065.stm Version 0 of 1. A doctor accused of a terrorist plot went quiet and looked ill when he saw TV news of an alleged car bomb attack on Glasgow Airport, a court heard. Dr Mohammed Asha watched footage of the burning Jeep with friend Mohammed Nizam on 30 June last year. Dr Asha is alleged to have supplied cash and advice to the bombers. The 28-year-old, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Dr Bilal Abdulla, 29, from Paisley, deny conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions. Prosecutors claim Dr Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed, 28, were seeking "wholesale murder" when they drove the Jeep packed with gas canisters and petrol into the airport's packed terminal. Dr Abdulla maintains he did not intend to harm anyone. Mr Ahmed died from burns a month after the incident. 'Poorly' Dr Nizam described Dr Asha as a "devout Muslim" and said they prayed together every Friday. He told Woolwich Crown Court the colleagues watched the bulletin with their wives and Dr Asha's young son in Dr Nizam's house in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Dr Nizam said his colleague seemed distracted. "In retrospect I think he looked very poorly or something," he said, adding that he eventually drove Dr Asha home. Dr Nizam said he was invited in for a cup of tea but that the defendant then disappeared upstairs for about 10 minutes. "He didn't say very much and he looked very tired," Dr Nizam added. He also told the jury that in the week before Dr Asha's arrest, his friend seemed preoccupied because he had not been paid. Dr Asha's General Medical Council registration had lapsed between 14 April and 29 May and staff at University Hospital, North Staffordshire, told him he would not be paid for his work during that period. Failed to detonate The jury heard that his net salary in May was £2,412.05, but in June he was paid nothing. Despite this, it is alleged that Dr Asha gave Dr Abdulla £1,300 to fund terror attacks in Glasgow and London. Two car bombs were planted outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub and in Cockspur Street in the capital's West End the day before the Glasgow attack. But they failed because mobile detonators did not work, the jury been told. The trial continues. |