'I am a terrorist'

2008-11-17 16:17

London - An Iraqi doctor accused of plotting car bomb attacks in London and Scotland admitted on Monday he was a "terrorist" but said he had not planned to kill or injure anyone.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, who was in a car packed with gas and petrol canisters that was rammed into Glasgow Airport and then set on fire, told Woolwich Crown Court he had said to Scottish police shortly afterwards that he was a terrorist.

However, he said he had not planned to take part in a suicide attack, the Press Association reported.

The dramatic attack in Glasgow in June last year came a day after two cars also packed with fuel containers, gas canisters and nails were left outside a busy nightclub in central London.

On Monday, Abdulla was asked whether he had told a police officer he was a terrorist after his arrest at Glasgow airport.

"I said something along those lines, but it was more like a question," he told the court.

"Everyone was saying you are a terrorist, you are arrested under the Terrorism Act and so forth. That is my case in a nutshell. I am told I am a terrorist, but is your government not a terrorist, is your army not a terrorist?

"By the definition of the Act, according to English law, yes. That is my aim - to change opinion using violence, using fire devices."

Abdulla, who is on trial with Jordanian Doctor Mohammed Asha, 28, said he planned to flee Britain to Jordan or Iraq probably via Turkey after attacks in London failed.

But as they approached Glasgow airport his friend, Indian Kafeel Ahmed, 28, swerved the Jeep into the terminal building without warning.

Abdulla and Ahmed, 28, who later died of burns he sustained in the attack, had wanted to highlight the plight of people in Iraq and Afghanistan with a series of incendiary device attacks, the defence has said.

"I never had such an agreement with Kafeel. From the beginning, from day one, we said we will not kill or injure any innocent person," he said.

"Look at this incident. This incident, if it was to kill people or cause an explosion, we would not have done it that way. It looks very clumsy."

He said Ahmed brought the petrol bombs to protect himself from the police if he was caught on the way. But his friend stunned him by ramming the airport terminal.

"He was determined, his foot was on the accelerator and he did not respond to me at all. I started shouting 'What are you doing, what are you doing, man?'" the court was told.

Abdulla said he threw a petrol bomb Ahmed had put in his hands out of the car window away from airport passengers, but in the process set fire to other bombs and burned him.

He said he was then attacked by people as he got out of the car, saying he hit back after being punched.

Abdulla and Asha deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. The trial continues.

- Reuters