LONDON - An IRAQI doctor was found guilty on Tuesday of trying to murder hundreds of people in failed car bombings in London and Glasgow, attacks only foiled by a combination of luck and personal bravery.
British-born Bilal Abdulla, 29, was also found guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions and faces a life sentence. His co-defendant Mohammed Asha, a 28-year-old Jordanian neurologist, was cleared on both counts.
Abdulla had admitted to Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London that he was a 'terrorist', but accused the British government of terrorism too for invading Iraq - and maintained he was not trying to kill or injure anyone.
Lawyers for Asha, meanwhile, had said that he would not have fitted in with the alleged attackers because he was too intelligent, arguing that Abdulla and another man looked down on him because of his concentration on his work.
After 24 hours and 15 minutes of deliberations, the jury of seven women and five men rejected Abdulla's defence, but found Asha to have known nothing of his friend's plans.
'Bilal Abdulla planned to murder many innocent people when he set out to attack central London,' said Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, the head of the force's Counter-Terrorism Command.
'It was more luck than judgment that their repeated attempts to detonate the two car bombs by mobile phone failed.'
Abdulla, who was born in Britain but grew up in Iraq, will be sentenced on Wednesday at 1000 GMT (6pm Singapore time).
He showed no reaction as the verdicts were read out.
His lawyer Jim Sturman said outside the court that Abdulla wanted to 'emphasise that these offences were motivated by politics, not religion'.
'This is not a case where his intention was driven by religious faith but by his frustration with what he saw as an unjust war.'
Asha, meanwhile, was facing deportation to Jordan.
His father Jamil Asha said his family was 'extremely happy' with the news, telling AFP: 'We were 100 per cent sure that our son is innocent. I can't express my joy... thank God for this.'
Police discovered two Mercedes cars loaded with bombs made of gas cylinders, petrol and nails left outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub and a bus stop in a bid to target late-night revellers in London's West End on June 29, 2007.
The devices failed to explode because of faulty connections in mobile phones being used as detonators and the smothering effect of petrol and gas fumes, jurors heard.
The next day a Jeep carrying a similar deadly cargo was crashed into the front of the main terminal at Glasgow airport in Scotland in an alleged suicide attack.
Hundreds of travellers fled in terror after the vehicle caught fire and thick black smoke filled the terminal, although there was no explosion.
Abdulla, who along with Asha worked in Britain's state-run National Health Service, was arrested at the scene after throwing petrol bombs and fighting with police. He tried to escape but was tackled by onlookers.
Asha was arrested hours later as he travelled on a motorway with his wife and young son.
The attacks prompted British security services to raise the national terror threat level to 'critical', the highest of five levels, on June 30.
Also detained at Glasgow airport was Kafeel Ahmed, the driver of the blazing Jeep, who died a month later from the critical burns he suffered.
His brother Sabeel was found guilty by a British court in April of withholding information from police about the failed attacks, and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.
He was deported to his home country India in May after being released from custody due to the amount of time he had already served in jail.
The only other man charged in connection with the plot - Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef, who was detained in Australia - was exonerated by a court of charges that he had abetted a group involved in the failed bombings, after the case against him collapsed for lack of evidence. -- AFP
