|
Iraqi doctor appears in court
07/07/2007 14:26 - (SA)
London - An Iraqi-trained doctor appeared
in a London court on Saturday in connection with failed car bomb
attacks in London and Glasgow.
Bilal Abdulla, 27, was charged with conspiracy to cause
explosions. Dressed in a white sweatshirt, he spoke only to
confirm his name and address.
No bail was applied for and he will reappear at London's Old
Bailey criminal court on July 27.
Abdulla is the first person to be charged over the suspected
al Qaeda-linked plot in which eight Middle Eastern and Indian
medics have been arrested, seven in Britain and one in
Australia.
Abdulla was arrested after a jeep crashed into the terminal
building at Glasgow airport last Saturday.
Television coverage
The father of another suspect, Kafeel Ahmed, 27, told the
Times of India on Saturday he had identified his son from
television coverage.
Ahmed has been in hospital with critical burns since the
Glasgow attack - witnesses say he set both himself and the
crashed vehicles on fire.
"When we saw the footage of a person being carried to the
hospital, followed by the blast and the police suspecting him to
be the suicide bomber, we identified that he was our son," their
father Maqbool Ahmed told the paper from Bangalore.
Kafeel's brother Sabeel, 26, was arrested in Liverpool,
northwest England, later the same evening.
His father said Sabeel had been allowed by British police to
call him every day since his arrest.
National threat warning
"Sabeel said he was treated well by the police and he has
been cooperating with them," Ahmed said.
"We enquired about Kafeel but he refused to speak about him
or give any details," Ahmed added.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday that
investigations were "getting to the bottom" of the cell behind
the failed bombings.
Two car bombs primed to explode in London's bustling theatre
and nightclub district were discovered the day before the
Glasgow attack.
Although the London and Scottish attacks failed, they posed
a test of nerve for Brown's new government in the first week
after he replaced Tony Blair on June 27.
For four days, security officials raised Britain's national
threat warning to its highest level, before lowering it one
notch on Wednesday.
- Reuters
|
News
