Jurors trying doctors in Kafeel Ahmed case warned against prejudice

London, Oct 9 (IANS) Two doctors from the Middle East who participated in Indian-born terrorist Kafeel Ahmed's plot to bomb targets in Britain wanted to commit 'indiscriminate and wholesale' murder, a London court was told Thursday.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Mohammad Asha, 27, were arrested last year in connection with a bomb plot in London and an attempt to attack Glasgow airport in Scotland.

Although both attacks failed, they have figured prominently in the British press, and the judge too warned the jury Wednesday not to allow any personal prejudices to come in the way of their verdict.

Justice Mackay told jurors at Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London they must base any decisions solely on the evidence they hear and 'not based on any prejudices, beliefs or personal opinions the members of the jury may have'.

Prosecutors told the jury Thursday that Abdulla, a Britain-born Iraqi citizen, and Kafeel Ahmed were in a bomb-laden burning Jeep Cherokee that rammed the Glasgow airport terminal building on June 30 last year.

Ahmed, who drove the jeep, died of burn injuries five weeks later.

Two days earlier, he and Ahmed had left two gas-laden cars in London's West End - a theatre district that is popular with tourists - the court was told by prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw. That attack also failed.

Asha, a Jordanian neurologist, supported the plot as a key figure behind the scenes, the trial heard.

'Their plan was to carry out a series of attacks on the public using bombs concealed in vehicles. No warnings were to be given and the cars were to be positioned in busy urban areas,' Laidlaw said.

'These men were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and a wholesale scale.

'By the carrying out of a series of explosions, with no warning as to where the next strike would occur, the terrorists knew the public would be gripped by fear. They would not know where the terrorists would strike next.'

Laidlow told the court that the two men were motivated by revenge for how they believed Britain was treating Muslims in conflicts around the world.