Bomb plot trial told of extremist books

A haul of extremist documents was found during a raid of a ex-Shropshire doctor's home after his arrest following the London and Glasgow bomb attacks, a court heard.

A laptop computer at Mohammed Asha's home in Staffordshire contained the 40 documents, including several fundamentalist books written in Arabic, Woolwich Crown Court heard yesterday.

Asha, who worked at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for 12 months while training to be a brain surgeon, is accused of conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions, alongside his friend Bilal Abdulla.

The two NHS doctors deny the charges.

A third man, Kafeel Ahmed, died from the injuries he suffered when he drove a Jeep, packed with fuel, explosives and nails, into the terminal entrance of Glasgow Airport in June last year.

It came days after two cars, also packed with similar materials, were parked in busy London streets. Both failed to detonate.

Asha is accused of helping to "mastermind" the attacks by providing advice, support and cash for the attacks.

Yesterday at Woolwich Crown Court, David Rich, a police forensic expert, who examined the laptop found at Asha's home, told the jury almost all of the material was downloaded in one session in July 2005 and the hard drive had been reformatted twice since then.

The books covered topics of martyrdom, Jihad, Sharia law, the September 11 attacks and attacks on civilians, the court was told.

The trial continues.