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I want to save lives, says doctor cleared of airport terror plot
Jack Lefley23.12.08
The neurosurgeon acquitted of planning car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow has insisted he wants to save lives not kill innocents.
Speaking for the first time since he was cleared, Dr Mohammed Asha said suspicion fell on him after he was tricked into giving terrorists Kafeel Ahmed and Bilal Abdulla money.
The 28-year-old brain surgeon insisted he condemned violence and that his heroes were Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
He said: "I want a career as a top neurosurgeon to help save lives and I don't want people blowing me up at airports waiting to go on holiday.
"I am a pacifist and I condemn all fighting. The idea of picking on women and children and soft targets disgusts me."
Abdulla, 29, who was born in Britain, was jailed for 32 years last week after being found guilty of leaving car bombs outside a London nightclub and then crashing a burning Jeep into Glasgow Airport. Ahmed, 28, was badly burned in the airport attack and later died of his injuries.
Dr Asha met Abdulla in Cambridge in 2003 and developed a friendship with him and Ahmed. He said: "They were my friends but they have wrecked my life.They betrayed my friendship and abused my trust and I was dragged through the courts for associating with them. But my association was based on friendship, not conspiracy."
The father of one was accused of funding and guiding the fanatics because he gave them money and spoke to them over the phone.
A jury at Woolwich crown court found him not guilty but he remains in Belmarsh top security prison. He is facing deportation back to his native Jordan and the British Government claims he is a threat to national security.
But Dr Asha, who was working for the NHS at North Staffordshire University Hospital before he was arrested, is determined to resume his career and be reunited with his wife Marwa and their young child in Stoke.
He was unknowingly caught up in the terror plot when Abdulla, who wanted to launch revenge attacks for the Iraq invasion, and Indian engineer Ahmed, came to see him after the failed attacks in London on 29 June last year.
Anti-terror police immediately put him under surveillance and observed him dumping Arabic texts and computer discs. They arrested him on suspicion of funding the plot.
Dr Asha admits he gave Abdulla money but said he believed it was to help his friend pay the rent. He said: "I was tricked by a friend. It's laughable people have called me a supporter and funder of terrorism."
Detectives found extremist material on his laptop but the jury was told it could have been stored there by Abdulla. Dr Asha said: "Like a lot of Muslims, and lot of Christians, I don't approve a lot of foreign policy of the Americans in the Middle East.
"But as a young Muslim man in medicine, I am as far removed from wanting a violent reaction to that as a middle-aged white Christian doctor."
He was hugged by Abdulla when he was cleared but insists it was an apology rather than a celebration. Dr Asha said: "Bilal apologised to me in court when I was acquitted and wanted to embrace me. I was accepting an apology from someone who lied and got me into trouble." His wife, whom he married in 2004 after they met at school, branded the idea her husband was a terrorist "ridiculous". She said: "The only thing he is guilty of is being too trusting and generous to friends who betrayed him."
Dr Asha is angry that the Home Office says he is a threat despite his acquittal. He said: "I can't believe that's not good enough. I'm still in Belmarsh prison being treated as a terrorist."
His solicitor Tayab Ali demanded that he be allowed to continue his medical career.
Reader views (6)
If this man has suspected links with those who would murder us, the British people must be given the benefit of the doubt, not a foreign national, and he must be deported.
There are plenty of British doctors, we don't need him.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
This wouldn’t be the first time that men and women of a jury have acquitted a guilty man due to a lack of evidence. There are countless cases to speak of. This verdict does not in any way, shape or form mean that we are safe from his evil intentions. When the verdict was read out, he was hugged by a joyous convicted terrorist. They hold him in such high esteem that they are open and bold enough to show him their gratitude.
If this isn’t an indication that he conspired with his co defendants then I don’t know what is. If he was that removed from their ambitious plot to murder innocent people then why would they show him such affection?
Why doesn’t he become the best neurosurgeon in his beloved Jordan? Someone should speak to his precious wife and child so that they are aware that his future in the UK has been blighted forever.
- Joyce Jerome, Greater London
Well as one says NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE!!
This man MUST! be deported without a doubt, he is a major threat to our British way of life,but no doubt the pathetic goverment, and human rights lawyers will be hanging around to fight and his case, and dare i say WIN,makes me just sick. regards Sorraya
- Sorraya, croydon
Great let him continue to practise and lets see how he kills..yeap right...cuddle as an apology????
- Sarah, London
If he's telling the truth he is naive and stupid. If he's not then he's dangerous. Send him back to Jordan. The British tax payer has enough to contend with already. We should not have to be paying for this man to be kept in Belmarsh.
- Jilly, London
Well they say don't judge a book by it's cover, but personally I think he looks pure evil.
- Simon Masters, London
