'I love the country here. I love the way people treat each other'

Profile: When he was arrested on the M6 motorway in Cheshire on the evening of the bombing attack on Glasgow, Mohammed Asha asked police if his car had been stopped because of his long beard, the symbol of religious piety among Muslim men.

When he was arrested on the M6 motorway in Cheshire on the evening of the bombing attack on Glasgow, Mohammed Asha asked police if his car had been stopped because of his long beard, the symbol of religious piety among Muslim men.

In Woolwich Crown Court the tall, lean neurosurgeon wore his beard neatly trimmed and listened intently to proceedings from behind a glass security screen, his chin sometimes resting on his hand.

Mr Asha, regarded as an outstanding junior neurologist by staff at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, was accused of working behind the scenes to support the terrorist conspiracy, by providing advice and cash to pay for some of the equipment.

But in court the Saudi-born doctor sought to portray himself as a completely different man from his co-defendant Abdulla, whom he had met as a student in Cambridge, and who readily admitted plotting incendiary terrorist attacks.

When all three men were studying in Cambridge in 2005, Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed, who died after the attacks, made no secret of their support for the insurgency in Iraq.

But Mr Asha was more interested in his studies and was described as a "swot".

His lawyer said Mr Asha was a pacifist, and a decent man devoted to his family and dedicated to only one cause in an extreme way - his medical career.

In interviews immediately after his arrest Mr Asha characterised Abdulla as being sympathetic to the insurgency in Iraq and said he spoke regularly about "martyrdom" and laughed at him for enjoying life in the West while other Muslims were suffering.

Mr Asha said he loved Britain, the NHS and his wife and child. "I love the country here, I love the way people treat each other here, especially medical training," he said. I know people have complaints about the NHS but, take it from me, it is a great system," he said.

The two men, who sat side by side in the security dock, barely looked at each other while they were in front of the jury as the court heard evidence linking them together.

However, before he was led from the dock ahead of his friend, Dr Asha shook Abdulla's hand and the men embraced.

They appeared to wish each other well as they exchanged a few words before dock officers led Asha away.

As the verdicts were read out Mr Asha pressed his head against the glass of the dock and closed his eyes.

Abdulla said that although he called Mr Asha on the phone regularly while he was preparing for the attacks, they never spoke about the plans.

Mr Asha said he was "completely unaware" of the conspiracy, even when the bombers visited him en route from London to Glasgow. The jury agreed.

On the day he was arrested, Mr Asha was observed by undercover officers disposing of various Islamic documents, and a search of his home in Sunningdale Grove, Chesterton, revealed further extremist material on a computer hard drive.

In court, Abdulla, said that much of this literature had belonged to him. The material, the defence held, had been loaded onto the computer when he installed software.

"My life has always been hard work, family and entertainment," Mr Asha told the court. "Religion came as a complementary element."

And on his last day of evidence Mr Asha turned on Abdulla, his co-accused. He told the court: "He used me. He betrayed me and he destroyed my life."