A doctor accused of plotting a string of car bomb attacks was not capable of being a "monster" ready to commit mass murder, a court heard yesterday.
A doctor accused of plotting a string of car bomb attacks was not capable of being a "monster" ready to commit mass murder, a court heard yesterday.
Mohammad Asha, 28, was a family man with a love for poetry and was not capable of being a terrorist, it was said.
If he had been planning to kill innocent Britons in London and Glasgow last summer then his life as a promising doctor, father and husband was a lie, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Dr Asha, a Jordanian national, is on trial with friend and fellow doctor Bilal Abdulla.
Both men deny being part of a conspiracy to murder and cause explosions.
In his closing speech to the jury, Stephen Kamlish QC said Dr Asha was "no ordinary doctor" and "no ordinary person".
"It is true doctors can be terrorists, anyone can be terrorists, even barristers can be terrorists," he said.
"But if you look at Mohammad Asha, he cannot be a terrorist unless his whole life, day in day out, to everyone who knows him is a complete and utter lie.
"In order to be guilty in this case you have to be a monster, you have to be a murderer."
Mr Kamlish told the jury that if the prosecution were to be believed and Dr Asha was part of the plot to kill Britons in a car bombing campaign, he had been dishonest with everyone he knew.
"He has to have lived a lie with everyone," he told jurors.
"When people described him as a good man and a great doctor he has lied to all of them. He has hidden behind the veneer of goodness and decency, according to the Crown."
Dr Asha is said to have been a key point of contact for Dr Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed, 28, before the two men tried to blow up home-made car bombs in London's West End on June 29 last year.
When the devices failed to detonate he met the pair at the University of North Staffordshire Hospital to prepare for the suicide attack on Glasgow Airport the following day, it is alleged.
Ahmed died in hospital from severe burns after crashing a Jeep Cherokee in to the terminal entrance, jurors have heard. Dr Abdulla was arrested at the scene after a struggle and Dr Asha was caught on the M6 after being placed under surveillance.
Mr Kamlish said the jury were looking at a "decent, good man".
Dr Asha, of Sunningdale Grove, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs; and Iraqi Abdulla, of (Flat G) Halls of Residence, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Corsebar Road, 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.
