Post by Jack on Jun 2, 2008 16:19:53 GMT
Source: BBC
A man accused of leading an airline bomb plot wanted to set off a device in Parliament as a stunt, he told a jury.
Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, of Walthamstow, east London, told Woolwich Crown Court he wanted to protest against UK foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said a "martyrdom video" in which he spoke of teaching the West "a lesson" was part of a documentary he was making which he planned to post online.
He is one of eight men who deny a plot to blow up passenger planes in 2006.
Mr Ali also told the court he had researched making an explosive device using a drinks bottle, hydrogen peroxide and batteries.
Previously in the trial, the jury was played a 16-minute video in which he threatened to teach the West a "lesson they will never forget" and to punish and humiliate non-Muslims.
Prosecutors claim the gang planned to make hydrogen peroxide bombs disguised as soft drinks to detonate in mid-air on at least seven transatlantic passenger planes flying out of Heathrow airport.
The computer systems engineering graduate told the court he had become politically and religiously active in his teens but was not an extremist.
Giving evidence from the witness box for the first time, he told how he had become actively involved in politics at university, handing out leaflets and joining demonstrations.
He said he had taken part in the mass anti-Iraq war protest in 2003, which had shown him that "people are all the same" with the same core beliefs and morals.
Questioning him about his political views, his barrister, Nadine Radford QC, asked him: "Would you describe yourself as an extremist?" He replied: "No, I would not."
'Tears and emotion'
After university, he said he started volunteering with a Hackney-based Islamic charity.
In January 2003, he and two of the other defendants, Assad Sarwar and Umar Islam, travelled to a remote refugee camp in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, with an aid shipment.
Mr Ali told the court he found conditions in the camps shocking. with people, including children, dying daily.
He said: "I felt emotions that I had not felt before. Initially it made me cry quite a lot, when I was by myself.
"I do not know if I can explain it to you. I do not know if you have ever seen somebody die, how that makes you feel.
"Multiply that and the suffering you are going through and the environment you are in. It is very sad, very sad."
He said most refugees had travelled from fighting in Afghanistan and some were horribly wounded.
He said some were unwilling to accept his aid because they blamed Britain for their plight.
School friends
Mr Ali's co-defendants are: Assad Sarwar, 24, of High Wycombe, Bucks, Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Leyton, east London, Waheed Zaman, 23, and Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, both of Walthamstow, east London.
Also charged are Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking, east London, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, north London, and Umar Islam, 29, of Plaistow, east London.
Mr Ali told the court he had known Mr Khan since primary school and that he went to secondary school with Mr Savant.
He said he met Mr Zaman at Queen's Road mosque in Walthamstow and Mr Sarwar and Mr Islam through charity work. He said he had only met Mr Gulzar once.
Mr Ali told the court he was one of eight children, five of them boys - one brother works for the Probation Service and another for London Underground.
His family moved to the UK from Pakistan in the 1960s and returned for six years until 1987.l
The trial continues.
A man accused of leading an airline bomb plot wanted to set off a device in Parliament as a stunt, he told a jury.
Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, of Walthamstow, east London, told Woolwich Crown Court he wanted to protest against UK foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said a "martyrdom video" in which he spoke of teaching the West "a lesson" was part of a documentary he was making which he planned to post online.
He is one of eight men who deny a plot to blow up passenger planes in 2006.
Mr Ali also told the court he had researched making an explosive device using a drinks bottle, hydrogen peroxide and batteries.
Previously in the trial, the jury was played a 16-minute video in which he threatened to teach the West a "lesson they will never forget" and to punish and humiliate non-Muslims.
Prosecutors claim the gang planned to make hydrogen peroxide bombs disguised as soft drinks to detonate in mid-air on at least seven transatlantic passenger planes flying out of Heathrow airport.
The computer systems engineering graduate told the court he had become politically and religiously active in his teens but was not an extremist.
Giving evidence from the witness box for the first time, he told how he had become actively involved in politics at university, handing out leaflets and joining demonstrations.
He said he had taken part in the mass anti-Iraq war protest in 2003, which had shown him that "people are all the same" with the same core beliefs and morals.
Questioning him about his political views, his barrister, Nadine Radford QC, asked him: "Would you describe yourself as an extremist?" He replied: "No, I would not."
'Tears and emotion'
After university, he said he started volunteering with a Hackney-based Islamic charity.
In January 2003, he and two of the other defendants, Assad Sarwar and Umar Islam, travelled to a remote refugee camp in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, with an aid shipment.
Mr Ali told the court he found conditions in the camps shocking. with people, including children, dying daily.
He said: "I felt emotions that I had not felt before. Initially it made me cry quite a lot, when I was by myself.
"I do not know if I can explain it to you. I do not know if you have ever seen somebody die, how that makes you feel.
"Multiply that and the suffering you are going through and the environment you are in. It is very sad, very sad."
He said most refugees had travelled from fighting in Afghanistan and some were horribly wounded.
He said some were unwilling to accept his aid because they blamed Britain for their plight.
School friends
Mr Ali's co-defendants are: Assad Sarwar, 24, of High Wycombe, Bucks, Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Leyton, east London, Waheed Zaman, 23, and Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, both of Walthamstow, east London.
Also charged are Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking, east London, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, north London, and Umar Islam, 29, of Plaistow, east London.
Mr Ali told the court he had known Mr Khan since primary school and that he went to secondary school with Mr Savant.
He said he met Mr Zaman at Queen's Road mosque in Walthamstow and Mr Sarwar and Mr Islam through charity work. He said he had only met Mr Gulzar once.
Mr Ali told the court he was one of eight children, five of them boys - one brother works for the Probation Service and another for London Underground.
His family moved to the UK from Pakistan in the 1960s and returned for six years until 1987.l
The trial continues.
