accused’s chilling account of Glasgow airport attack
Bomb trial doctor tells jury: ‘I am a terrorist’
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An NHS doctor who crashed into Glasgow Airport in a Jeep 4x4 laden with petrol and gas canisters admitted he is a terrorist yesterday.
Iraqi Bilal Abdulla, 29, said he told Scottish police just minutes after his arrest that he was a terrorist.
But the doctor insisted he was not part of a conspiracy to kill or injure anyone.
Testifying in his defence at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, Abdulla told the jury he planned to flee Britain via Turkey after the attacks on London’s West End failed.
But he claimed that as Kafeel Ahmed, 28, drove the Jeep to the airport he suddenly swerved into the building without warning.
Abdulla gave a dramatic insider’s account of the attack on June 30 last year.
Asked if he told a police officer he was a terrorist as he arrived at a Glasgow police station after his arrest, he said: “I said something along those lines, but it was more like a question.
“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.”
The two men wanted to highlight the plight of people in Iraq and Afghanistan with incendiary attacks, the defence has claimed.
Abdulla admitted throwing a petrol bomb and fighting with bystanders as he got out of the burning vehicle after it smashed into the building.
But he said his friend Ahmed suddenly passed him the lit petrol bomb and he tossed it away to protect himself from others in the Jeep.
Abdulla said the attack was “clumsy” and if their intent was to kill people they would have done it a different way.
Asked by his barrister Jim Sturman QC if he planned to kill anyone, he 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.”
Abdulla is on trial with Mohammed Asha, 28, accused of conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions. The two men deny the charges.
Ahmed, an Indian engineering student, died a month later from burns after dousing himself in petrol.
Abdulla said he was severely ill with a migraine on the day of the attack and Ahmed was in such a bad mood the men barely spoke.
Describing the attack on Glasgow Airport, Abdulla said: “He drove through the barrier and I got alarmed and I shouted ‘What are you doing, what is happening?’
“Then in a matter of no time the car accelerated and turned left into the pole.”
Abdulla said he panicked and shouted at Ahmed to “pull back” as he thought police would arrest them.
Describing his friend, he said: “I had never seen Kafeel’s face like that. He was determined, his foot was on the accelerator and he did not respond to me at all.
Abdulla said he suffered burns after Ahmed passed him a petrol bomb, accidentally igniting others inside the vehicle and forcing Abdulla to throw them out as well.
He said: “Kafeel got one of those bottles, I don’t know from where, out of the back, possibly in front of him, from behind, I cannot remember.
“He got one of the bottles, it was lit, and transferred it to my hands. He just put it into my hands.
“I thought I had petrol bottles in front of me with wicks, I will be on fire and burned, I knew there was petrol.
“So the first thought that came across my mind is to get rid of this bottle. I looked in front of me. It was an airport and people did not realise what is going on.”
Abdulla said he threw it outside across the bonnet away from passengers. But the other bottles in the car caught light anyway.
The doctor said: “The petrol in front of me, all of it caught fire. All of the bottles, I was engulfed in fire. All of my clothes. The fire in front of me, it was high. I tried to get rid of the bottles.”
Abdulla said he tried to get out of the Jeep but Ahmed would not unlock the doors.
He went on: “When I got out of the car I was attacked by people. I cannot remember the exact details.
“I know that I had struggled with people, I received punches and I punched back, I cannot remember exactly what happened.
“The witnesses that came here, I cannot remember their faces, I cannot remember anyone at all. I cannot remember the details. I do not dispute what they said.”
Abdulla said he only saw his friend once in the aftermath when Ahmed was handcuffed on the ground.
The trial continues today.
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