A doctor was accused of trying to hide evidence from police by burning and dumping documents connecting him to a friend involved in a terror attack.
A doctor was accused of trying to hide evidence from police by burning and dumping documents connecting him to a friend involved in a terror attack.
Dr Mohammad Asha, 28, told Woolwich Crown Court that he believed the "whole world" was watching him after a Jeep Cherokee, laden with petrol, gas and nails, crashed into Glasgow Airport.
He told the court he had a niggling feeling which grew stronger that his close friend, Dr Bilal Abdulla, 29, was involved and it left him frozen with fear.
Dr Asha is accused of supporting the attacks in London and Glasgow by handing over funds and offering Dr Abdulla and engineer Kafeel Ahmed "spiritual guidance" but he denies he was involved.
He told the court that, if he had been in with the bombers, he would have disposed of anything linking him to the plot well in advance.
Jurors have watched police surveillance footage of Dr Asha dumping documents and smashing up CDs in supermarket bins on June 30 last year. He was arrested shortly afterwards.
The dumped material included some 500 pages of Arabic literature, plus a job application and CV which Dr Asha had completed for Dr Abdulla, the court heard.
Dr Asha told the court his reactions were not premeditated or planned but a "panic reaction".
"Somebody like me, who is not stupid, an average person would not have left so many items with Bilal's name, identity and fingerprints in my house in a conspiracy that lasted six months. I would have had ample opportunity to get rid of them," he said.
"It was a panic reaction, it wasn't a premeditated or preplanned or conscious act. It was a last moment displacement panic reaction. It wasn't the case I was an involved party or deliberately cleaning up evidence," he added.
Dr Asha denies being part of a small British-based terror cell. Dr Abdulla and Ahmed parked car bombs outside two nightclubs in London on June 29 last year. When they failed to detonate, the two men travelled to Scotland and smashed a Jeep Cherokee into the terminal entrance of Glasgow Airport the next day. Dr Abdulla was arrested at the scene but Ahmed died in hospital from burns.
Dr Abdulla has admitted a conspiracy to plant "fire devices" with Ahmed but claims there were never intended to kill.
Dr Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Dr Abdulla, of the Halls of Residence, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life between January 1, 2006 and July 1, 2007.
The trial continues.
