'Shadowy' terrorist sent to UK for jet bomb plot posed as a honeymooner on false passport
Last updated at 00:47am on 8th April 2008 A shadowy figure in a plot to blow up transatlantic jets flew into Britain pretending to be on honeymoon, a court has heard.
Mohammed Gulzar, 26, was one of three key players in a plan to cause terror in a manner the world "was unlikely ever to forget", the jury was told.
He arrived from South Africa on a false passport two days before gang members set up a bomb factory, it is alleged.
Accused: Umar Islam, 29, and Mohammed Gulzar, 26
He travelled with Zora Saddique, who he had recently married. The pair even stopped off for two nights in Mauritius.
But after arriving on July 18, 2006, Gulzar took up residence in Barking while his wife later flew to Belgium.
Gulzar, a British
Accused: Tanvir Hussain, 27, and Arafat Khan, 26
citizen who was using the name Altaf Ravat, was later seen meeting "key" gang members Assad Sarwar and Abdulla Ahmed Ali.
The men, along with five others, are accused of plotting to blow up at least seven planes flying from Heathrow to the U.S. and Canada by detonating bombs in soft drink bottles between August and October 2006.
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Accused: Ibrahim Savant:, 27, and Assad Sarwar, 27
If they had been successful, almost 2,000 passengers and crew would have lost their lives.
The alleged plot was foiled on August 9, 2006, when Sarwar and Ali were arrested in a car park in reasons connected with any honeymoon nor the propagation of peaceful religious resolve.
'Mohammed Gulzar entered the UK as a radicalised Islamist pursuing a violent agenda.
"Mr Gulzar is, we say, a far more shadowy figure in this conspiracy. No suicide video or martyrdom tape has been found containing any declaration by this man.
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Accused: Waheed Zaman, 23 and Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27
"He led a spartan existence so as not to draw attention to himself in the prelude to what was anticipated would be a most violent and bloody statement of intent."
As well as Gulzar, Ali, 27, Waheed Zaman, 23, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, all from Walthamstow, Ibrahim Savant, 27, from Stoke Newington, North London, Sarwar, 27, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Tanvir Hussain, 27, from Leyton, East London, and Umar Islam, 29, from Plaistow, East London, all deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft.
The case continues.