Bomb evidence 'did not stand up'

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Evidence against one defendant at the fertiliser terror plot trial "did not stand up", jurors have been told.

Michel Massih QC urged the jury to acquit Waheed Mahmood, the only one of the seven accused who did not give evidence at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutors had not shown Mr Mahmood knew about the purchase of fertiliser or a plot to bomb clubs, power supplies and the Bluewater centre, he said.

Mr Mahmood and six other men deny conspiring to cause explosions.

'Hate and disgust'

Jurors were left with bugged recordings in which Mahmood showed his "anger and frustration" during a time of turmoil in Iraq, he said.

Mr Massih told the jury that it should look beyond Mr Mahmood's "hate and disgust of the society in which he lives".

"You are going to rise above this," said Mr Massih.

The defendants were arrested after more than half a metric ton of chemical fertiliser was found in a storage depot in west London in 2004.

Omar Khyam, 25, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 20, Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 23, all from Crawley, West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 25, of Barkingside, east London; Nabeel Hussain, 21, of Horley, Surrey; and Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton, Bedfordshire, deny conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between January 1 2003 and March 31 2004.

Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 1,300lb (600kg) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism.

Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism.