A Briton arrested in the Channel Tunnel had traces of explosives in his luggage and was planning attacks in pursuit of the cause of militant Islam, a court heard today. Andrew Rowe had also written a secret code in which words such as target, police and weapons were substituted for mobile phone models, an Old Bailey jury heard. The code "made it possible to communicate in an innocent message which only spoke about mobile telephones", Mark Ellison, prosecuting, told the court. Its details were found in the address at Ash Road, Birmingham, where Mr Rowe's estranged wife and children were living, Mr Ellison said.
Mr Rowe also wrote pages of detailed technical information on how to use a mortar, which were found in a cupboard in a west London flat where he had been living. Police found traces of explosive on socks which had been rolled into a ball and attached to a cord, making them ideal for cleaning a mortar bomb, it was alleged.
Mr Rowe, 34, of Maida Vale, west London, was arrested as he left the French side of the tunnel to return to Britain from Frankfurt, Germany, in October 2003. He denies four charges under the Terrorism Act, three allegations that he had articles for use in terrorism and one of making a record of information for use in terrorism. Mr Ellison said a notebook contained around 20 pages, in Mr Rowe's writing, containing details on how to aim and fire an 82mm Russian mortar - a high explosive bomb fired from a tube. The sock ball found in Mr Rowe's luggage "was found to have significant levels of high explosive traces in it", the jury was told. The substitution code referred to Nokia telephones. Giving examples of the code, Mr Ellison said money was Nokia 3310, trouble-police was 3410, weapon 3610, airport 3310, army base 3331. Mr Ellison said the items detailed in the charges were for use in the preparation of, or the commission of, acts of serious violence to people or damaging property.
This was in advance of the ideological or religious cause followed by militant Muslims who believed it was their duty to wage jihad, or holy war. "That cause is one and the same militant ideological cause that is publicly promoted by Osama bin Laden and commonly attributed to al-Qaida and militant Islamic groups," Mr Ellison added. Mr Rowe had undergone a religious conversion to become a Muslim in the mid-1990s and called himself Yusuf Abdullah. In 1997, the year his conversion was complete, he married Shabia Tafla. They lived at a number of rented addresses before she moved out with their four children in 2002. The case was adjourned until tomorrow. |