British airline plot accused posed as newlywed

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - One of eight men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic airliners was a "shadowy figure" with links to Pakistan who arrived in Britain on a false passport pretending to be a newlywed, a court heard on Monday.

Mohammed Gulzar, 26, was a senior figure in the plot to bring down at least seven planes in mid-flight as they headed from London's Heathrow to Canada and the United States, the jury at Woolwich Crown Court in east London was told.

"Mr Gulzar is ... a far more shadowy figure in this conspiracy," prosecutor Peter Wright told the court.

"Mohammed Gulzar entered the United Kingdom as a radicalised Islamist pursuing a violent agenda."

The eight British citizens on trial at the maximum security court are Abdullah Ahmad Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 27, Tanvir Hussain, 27, Gulzar, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Khan, 26, Waheed Zaman, 23, and Umar Islam, 29. All are charged with conspiracy to murder. They deny the charges.

They are also accused of plotting "to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft".

Wright said Gulzar had arrived in Britain from South Africa on July 18, 2006, less than a month before police arrested the men who prosecutors say were not far from carrying out their suicide bombing mission.

He was using a South African passport under the false name, Altaf Ravat, and was with a woman he said was his wife. However she flew out of Britain shortly afterwards and Gulzar never took his return flight.