Two doctors face car bombings trial

Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Mohammed Asha, 28, are being held in custody accused of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. Prosecutors will open their case against the two men at Woolwich Crown Court, south-east London.

Trial judge Mr Justice Mackay told potential jurors that prosecutors believe the pair were motivated by a fundamental form of Islam.

Iraqi-born Abdulla was arrested after a burning Jeep was driven into the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport on June 30 last year.

Jordanian Asha, a neurologist, was arrested on the M6 motorway in Cheshire later that day.

In the early hours of June 29, two Mercedes cars containing petrol, gas cylinders and nails were driven into London's West End.

One was discovered outside the Tiger, Tiger nightclub in Haymarket, causing hundreds of revellers to be evacuated. The second car, parked in adjoining Cockspur Street, was towed to a nearby car pound. It was made safe later that day.

Abdulla, of Houston, Glasgow, and Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, deny the offences. The two men have worked in NHS hospitals in Glasgow, Staffordshire, south Wales and Cambridge.

A third man, Kafeel Ahmed, 28, died 33 days later from critical burns suffered in the airport attack. He was the driver of the vehicle.

Both men are accused of conspiring with Ahmed and others unknown to murder and cause explosions likely to endanger life between January 1, 2006 and July 1, 2007.