Terror suspect: we wanted to blame Al-Qaeda (From Times Series)

Terror suspect: we wanted to blame Al-Qaeda

8:08am Wednesday 11th June 2008 in

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A terror suspect said he intended to pin blame on Al-Qaeda for a "publicity stunt" explosion - and said suicide bombers were condemned to "hellfire".

Assad Sarwar, of Walton Drive, High Wycombe, said he and a co-defendant planned to tell police using a voice changer and obscure their faces on "martyrdom videos".

He is accused with seven others of plotting to blow up aircraft using liquid explosive - but Sarwar says the plot was for a harmless "publicity stunt" .

In his third day of evidence Sarwar he asked by Malcolm Bishop QC, defending, what he thought would happen to those who took part in a "martyrdom operation".

Sarwar told Woolwich Crown Court: "Clearly that person does end up in hell fire for eternity."

Sarwar has described al-Qaeda as a "deviant group" and an "extreme sect" and said suicide bombing was "alien" to Islam.

Mr Bishop asked him: "You were going to, by means of a disguised voice, ring up the police and tell them that al-Qaeda was responsible?"

Sarwar replied: "That's correct."

The trial has been shown "suicide videos" of five of the men in which they angrily denounce British foreign policy and are alleged to endorse martyrdom, But Ali and Sarwar have described them as "propaganda" tapes that would be released on the internet after the explosion at an airport.

Sarwar told the court he had a friend in High Wycombe who was going to help him edit the tapes and distort the faces of the people who appeared on them.

Sarwar met his friend in early August and discussed editing the videos and making a documentary to go with them.

He said: "Me and Ali, if the distribution of this DVD did go out, the faces would be obscured.

Mr Bishop then asked: "The martyrdom videos?"

Sarwar replied: "That's correct, yes."

He also made 20 litres of a chemical used to make explosive in one day, he told the court.

Sarwar said he visited two different stores throughout the afternoon of August 9 2006, the day of his arrest, to buy hydrogen peroxide.

Jurors were told he bought ten one litre bottles of the chemical at around 2pm, and two five litre cans about two hours later.

He then decanted some of the hydrogen peroxide into two five litre bottles of mineral water he had bought earlier in the day from ASDA, the court heard.

Sarwar had already buried ten litres of the chemical in Fennell's Wood in Loudwater, the court heard.

He was planning to hide the rest of his stock in a suitcase buried in King's Wood, Totteridge, he said.

The prosecution alleges Sarwar plotted to make liquid explosive HMTD, store it in soft drink bottles and then smuggle it onto aircraft to explode midflight.

He said he and co-defendant Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, were planning on manufacturing and "experimenting" with the chemical.

All eight deny the charges. The trial continues.