UK bomb suspects played currency market to raise funds -court

LONDON (REUTERS) - Three Islamist militants accused of plotting attacks in Britain tried to raise funds for their bombing campaign by trading stolen charity money on the foreign exchange market, a court heard on Tuesday.

The three men from Birmingham in central England were arrested with several others on terrorism charges in September last year as part of a wider crackdown following the 2005 bomb attacks in London that killed 52 people.

The trio, on trial in London accused of being central figures in a suicide bomb plot, tried to raise money to finance a shop as a "cover" to recruit others to their cause, prosecutor Brian Altman told the jury.

He said the defendants had asked an associate, Rahin Ahmed, to set up a currency trading account using 14,500 pounds (S$28,312) they had amassed posing as volunteer fundraisers for a Muslim charity.