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Tube driver with al Qaeda links cleared of jihad charge
A London Underground driver on the Bakerloo line was cleared of plotting terrorist attacks despite writing a goodbye note to his wife and admitting he knew an al Qaeda operative.Amir Ali, 28, was accused of buying survival gear and had booked flights to Pakistan in order to commit "violent jihad" in Afghanistan. The married father of two wrote a letter to his wife and children declaring "Allah came first." Ali admitted knowing Anthony Garcia, who was jailed over a plot to blow up the Bluewater shopping mall and other targets with massive fertiliser bombs. He was also said to be associated with Garcia's brothers, Lamine Adam and Ibrahim Adam, who are fugitives. During the Bluewater trial it emerged that Lamine Adam, a former Tube driver, had been asked by terrorists in Pakistan to launch a suicide attack on the Tube. Ali was today found not guilty of preparation for acts of terrorism between April 2006 and March last year. He claims that he was framed by the British security services after refusing to become a mole for the MI5. When asked during the trial whether Muslims were obliged to carry out jihad Ali replied: "I think it's the obligation of a Muslim to follow the Koran." Just 10 years ago Ali had been an aspiring amateur boxer who twice won the light welterweight division of the London ABA Championships. But Ali left the sport when officials demanded he shave. The court heard he had studied at the University of North London. At the University's Islamic Society after 9/11, regularly attending talks with Lamine Adam. Police found Ali's goodbye letter to Miriam and his young children in his rucksack. He told his wife not to be "upset or depressed" as he would always remember her and the children. He also asked for his "wife's forgiveness and that he would see her soon in this life or the thereafter." Police also found terrorist related items at his home including recordings of imprisoned cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal. During the trial he distanced himself from al-Faisal, saying he was a victim of Islamophobia and compared his plight to that of the Irish living in the UK during the the IRA bombings and Nelson Mandela. Posted by: ryuge 2010-11-09 |
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