An NHS doctor accused of plotting car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow broke down in tears during police questioning and asked if his �friend� was involved, a court heard yesterday.
An NHS doctor accused of plotting car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow broke down in tears during police questioning and asked if his "friend" was involved, a court heard yesterday.
Mohammad Asha, 28, was arrested as he drove on the M6 and questioned at top security Paddington Green Police Station by counter-terrorism detectives.
Dr Asha admitted he suspected fellow medic Bilal Abdulla, 29, of involvement in the terrorist plot during "safety interviews", designed to allow police to obtain information to protect the public from imminent attack.
During questioning, Dr Asha said his friend Dr Abdulla had "joked" about martyrdom and was "sympathetic" about the Iraq conflict.
Dr Asha denied he had any knowledge of the failed car bomb attacks in London's West End and at Glasgow Airport. But he gave Dr Abdulla's name and said he had been acting "strange" in recent weeks. He added: "Is he involved in this?"
He said: "Over the last period he has been very depressed and started saying we should go to Iraq and this and that."
Dr Asha then named Dr Abdulla's friend, Kafeel Ahmed, 28, as a second person he thought might be involved.
The officer asked: "Did he say to you that he wanted to commit martyrdom?"
"Yeah," replied Dr Asha.
He sobbed again as he admitted: "I'm putting people towards this, isn't it?"
He added: I have been a fool all the time he's always talking about Iraq and martyrdom and people who drive their cars and commit suicide and bombing or whatever."
Dr Abdulla, it is alleged, parked a car bomb outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket, London, in the early hours of June 29 last year.
It is claimed that Kafeel Ahmed left a similar car in nearby Cockspur Street. Neither device activated.
The following day they are alleged to have driven a Jeep Cherokee, packed with petrol, gas and nails, into the terminal doors of Glasgow Airport in a failed suicide bomb attack. Ahmed later died in hospital from severe burns.
Later Dr Asha read news of the Glasgow Airport incident on the internet. "When I heard things about Scotland (it) just said (to) me could it be him?" he told officers.
He admitted lending Dr Abdulla between £1250 and £1500.
Although Dr Asha did not take part in the attacks, he is alleged to have helped plot them.
Dr Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Dr Abdulla, of Paisley, deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life. The trial continues.
