London, UK: fourth doctor has been charged over the suspected failed car bomb attacks

A British forensics officer examines a car parked outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London's Haymarket district in June 2007. Two suspects in last month's failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow have been released without charge.(AFP/File/Clara Molden)

Doctor faces car bomb plot charge
Dr Mohammed Asha
Mohammed Asha was arrested on the M6
A fourth doctor has been charged over the suspected failed bomb attacks in London and at Glasgow airport.
Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, has been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.
Dr Asha, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was arrested on the M6 motorway in Cheshire.
Four men have been charged and two men and a woman released without charge. One man is still being questioned.
Dr Asha is accused of conspiring with Bilal Talal Samad Abdullah, Kafeel Ahmed and "others unknown", Scotland Yard said.
He remains in custody at Paddington Green police station.
Last month, two cars containing petrol, gas cylinders and nails were discovered in London. A day later a burning car was driven into Glasgow airport.
On 6 July, Iraqi doctor Bilal Talal Samad Abdullah was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. He was arrested at Glasgow airport following the suspected failed car bombing there.
Armed guard
On 14 July Australian police charged Mohammed Haneef, a 27-year-old Indian doctor, with providing "reckless support" to a terrorist organisation.
He was later granted bail of A$10,000 (£4,300) by a judge in Brisbane, but will remain behind bars under Australian immigration law.
Dr Sabeel Ahmed, 26 and from Liverpool, was charged on 14 July with not disclosing information that could have helped police arrest a suspected terrorist.
He is the brother of Kafeel Ahmed who was detained at Glasgow airport after the burning Jeep was driven into a terminal building.
He suffered burns to 90% of his body and remains in hospital under armed guard.
Two trainee doctors, aged 28 and 25, have been released without charge.
Both men were arrested at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Paisley, Scotland.




Police remove gas cannisters from the burnt wreckage of a vehicle that was used to ram into a passenger terminal at Glasgow Airport in June 2007. A suspect in the failed car bombings in Britain was due in a London court on Monday after being charged over the weekend, with another still being questioned by police(AFP/File/Mark Runnacles)


Doctor in UK Court on Car Bomb Charge


Friday July 20, 2007 8:31 PM

By TARIQ PANJA
Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) - A Jordanian doctor charged with participating in foiled car bomb plots in London and Glasgow made a brief court appearance Friday.
Dr. Mohammed Jamil Asha, who was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions, spoke only to confirm his identity and address during his appearance at City of Westminster Magistrates Court.
His next appearance was set for July 27 at London's Central Criminal Court.
Asha, 26, was the fourth person to be charged after two cars packed with gas cylinders and nails were found in central London on June 29. The next day, two men crashed a flaming Jeep loaded with gas canisters and gasoline into security barriers at Glasgow airport's main terminal.
First to be charged was Dr. Bilal Abdullah, allegedly a passenger in the Jeep. He was also charged with conspiring to set off explosions.
Last week, police charged Indian Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, 26, with withholding information that could prevent an act of terrorism. He was arrested in Liverpool on the day of the Glasgow attack. His brother, Kafeel Ahmed, is believed to have set himself ablaze after crashing into the airport and remains in a Scottish hospital with critical burns.
Mohamed Haneef, 27, a distant cousin who once shared a house with the Ahmed brothers in Britain, has been charged by Australian police with supporting a terrorist group.
In all, police detained eight people in the aftermath of the foiled attacks. Four have been charged, three released, and Kafeel Ahmed is under guard in a hospital.
Also Friday, police in southwestern England released two men without charge, two days after detaining them on suspicion of terrorism.
Avon and Somerset Police said a man of Afghan origin had been detained Wednesday in Bristol on suspicion of a drugs offense. In a follow-up search, police said they found two 6 gallon containers marked ``hydrogen peroxide'' - a chemical that terrorists have used to make explosives in the past.
Following that discovery, police said a second man was detained.
Police said Friday that forensic analysis showed the substance in the containers was ``an oil-based liquid which is not dangerous.''




Bomb plot: arrests and releases

Eight people were initially held over the failed car bomb attacks on central London and Glasgow. Four men were later charged. One of these was arrested in Australia, but the charge against him was later withdrawn. Two men and a woman have been released without charge and one man is still under guard in hospital.

DR BILAL ABDULLAH

Iraqi doctor Bilal Talal Samad Abdullah was arrested at Glasgow Airport on 30 June following the failed car bombing.

He has since been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and is due to appear at London's Old Bailey on 27 July.

He works at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley as a diabetes specialist.


Dr Bilal Abdullah was arrested at Glasgow Airport

Dr Abdullah qualified in Baghdad in 2004 and first registered as a doctor in the UK in 2006.
He was given limited registration by the General Medical Council (GMC) from 5 August 2006 to 11 August 2007.
Limited registration is awarded to recent medical graduates and it allowed him to work in Britain for a year, but in accordance with standard procedure, he could not move jobs during that time and had to be supervised.
He lives in Neuk Crescent, Houston, outside Glasgow.
The Guardian newspaper reported Dr Abdullah was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where his father, also a doctor, worked.
After moving to Iraq, he studied at al-Mansour high school in Baghdad and later at Baghdad College, the paper said.

DR MOHAMMED ASHA

Mohammed Asha, 26, who lives in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was arrested on the M6 motorway in Cheshire on 30 June.


Dr Asha's wife was arrested and later released without charge

He has since been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. He was remanded in custody by magistrates in a hearing on 20 July, and is due to appear at the Old Bailey on 27 July.
Dr Asha is of Palestinian descent but grew up in Jordan.
Dr Asha's father Jamil told the BBC that his son "never showed any signs of growing militancy" during his three-year stay in Britain and called his arrest a "mistake".
He said they "were in phone contact every week" and that his son had been due to visit on 12 July with his wife and their son.
Dr Azmi Mahafzah, who taught Dr Asha at the University of Jordan's medical school for six years, said he was a brilliant student, adding: "I can't even remotely imagine him being involved in extremist activities or terrorism."

I remember him as a liberal thinker who respected other nationalities and religions
Dr Aseel al-Omari
Dr Asha's friend

Asha 'a brilliant student'
Dr Asha won a scholarship to the Jubilee School for gifted children in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Dr Aseel al-Omari, who described herself as a "close friend" of Dr Asha's, attended the same secondary school. She told the BBC: "I remember him as a liberal thinker who respected other nationalities and religions - that's what we were educated in our schools and in our career as doctors."
Security officials in Amman told the BBC that Dr Asha has no previous criminal record in Jordan.
Several newspapers have said he is one of eight children - six brothers and two sisters - three of whom are doctors and one an engineer.
Dr Asha spent his post-qualification year at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.


Dr Asha's mother Fawzia says her family rejects terrorism

He then moved to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent where he works as a neurologist.
Dr Asha is married with a young son and lives with his family in Sunningdale Grove in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
His wife Marwa, 27, was arrested with him on the M6 but she has since been freed without charge.
Dr Asha is believed to have completed an eight-week placement at the city's Addenbrooke's Hospital.
He is being held at London's high-security Paddington Green police station.

DR MOHAMMED HANEEF

The man arrested at Brisbane Airport was identified as Dr Mohammed Haneef, aged 27.
An Indian national, he was detained while trying to board a plane to India with a one-way ticket.
He was charged on 13 July with providing support to a terrorist organisation.
On 27 July Australia's director of public prosecutions announced that the charge was being withdrawn.
Dr Haneef studied medicine at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in Bangalore between 1997 to 2002, achieving a second-class degree.
His family comes from a small town 250km outside Bangalore and his late father was a teacher.
His cousins are Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed.


Dr Mohammed Haneef is the cousin of Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed

Queensland state leader Peter Beattie confirmed that the detained man had been working as a senior house officer at the Gold Coast Hospital since September 2006.
Before that, he worked at Halton Hospital in Cheshire.
The man answered an advert in the British Medical Journal in March 2006 for a job in Australia, Mr Beattie said.
Colleagues at the Gold Coast Hospital regarded him as "a model citizen with excellent references," he added.
Dr Haneef was employed under Australia's temporary skilled worker scheme.
His sister, Sumayya, told the Associated Press that her brother had been trying to return to India to see his daughter who was born on 26 June.
And she told The Australian newspaper: "His character is like a mirror - clean."

KAFEEL AHMED

The second man detained at Glasgow Airport has been named as Kafeel Ahmed.
The 27-year-old, from Bangalore, India, was one of two men detained at the airport after a burning car was driven into the terminal building.
He suffered burns to 90% of his body and has been transferred to a specialist burns unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary from a hospital in Paisley. He has been kept under armed guard and was described by health officials as still being in a critical condition.
It emerged that contrary to earlier reports, Mr Ahmed was not a medic but an engineer with a PhD in design and technology.
It is understood he began his studies at Queen's University, Belfast, in 2001 and remained in Northern Ireland until 2004.
It is believed he lived in rented accommodation in Hampton Place, close to the university.
A spokesman for Queen's University said officials were unable to comment.
He studied for his PhD in the department of design and technology at Anglia Polytechnic University (now called Anglia Ruskin University) in Cambridge, it is believed.
A spokeswoman for the university said it was co-operating fully with police inquiries, adding: "At this time identities are still unclear and it would be therefore inappropriate to comment further."
Mr Ahmed is thought to have returned to Bangalore in August 2005.
His brother is Dr Sabeel Ahmed.

DR SABEEL AHMED
Dr Sabeel Ahmed, 26, was arrested near Liverpool's Lime Street station on 30 June and was charged under the Terrorism Act on 14 July.
He appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, in London, on 16 July, accused of not disclosing information that could have helped police arrest a suspected terrorist. He was remanded in custody.


Dr Sabeel Ahmed was remanded in custody

The BBC learned that he had been working at Warrington hospital but has also worked at Halton - both are part of North Cheshire NHS trust.
He is from Bangalore in India and trained as a doctor at the city's Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences - the same place Mohammed Haneef who was arrested in Brisbane trained. He qualified in 2005.
Dr Sabeel's parents are also both doctors and live in an affluent neighbourhood in Bangalore.
His mother, Dr Zakia Ahmed, has told the BBC that her son is second cousin to Dr Haneef.
And she said her son followed Dr Haneef to Britain to work.
His mother also said her son last visited his family in May this year.


Dr Zakia Ahmed said her son was renewing his UK visa

She said she learned of his arrest through friends and has been able to speak to him briefly since he was detained.
She said her son was reapplying for his UK visa because he was hoping to do a post-graduate course.
"He calls me everyday", Dr Ahmed said, and "only talks about his patients and how his day went. As fellow doctors that's the only thing we talk about.
"This is all a mistake - he is innocent."

MARWA ASHA
The wife of Dr Mohammed Asha. She was arrested with him on the M6 motorway in Cheshire on 30 June but was freed without charge on 13 July.

28-YEAR-OLD MAN
A 28-year-old trainee doctor was arrested at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Paisley, Scotland, on 1 July. Held at London's Paddington Green police station, he has been freed without charge.

25-YEAR-OLD MAN
A 25-year-old trainee doctor was arrested at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, on 1 July. Held at London's Paddington Green police station, he has been freed without charge.