The brother of a terrorist who died in an airport suicide attack was today jailed for 18 months for withholding information about the plot.
Sabeel Ahmed, an NHS doctor, was sent a chilling email about the mission two days before his older brother Kafeel rammed a jeep into the air terminal in Glasgow. However, he did not read it until after the attack had taken place.
In it, the terrorist wrote: "This is the project that I was working on for some time now. Everything else was a lie.
"It's about time that we give up our lives and our families for the sake of Islam to please Allah."
The emails also revealed identity of the bombers, their addresses and other vital information which Ahmed should have passed to the authorities.
However, even when questioned at length by police, he did not reveal what he knew.
Indian-born Ahmed, 26, from Liverpool, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to withholding information about terrorism, which carries a maximum sentence of five years.
But the tariff was reduced because he did not read the email until the evening after the bombing.
Ahmed has already served half his sentence on remand and has agreed to leave the country and he was tonight being released into the custody of the immigration service to be deported back to India.
The judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, said it was clear from the email his brother sent that he expected to die in the attack, and that his body would be left unrecognisable.
He told Ahmed: "I accept that so far as you personally were concerned there is no sign of your being an extremist or party to extremist views."
However, the judge said, he had agreed to tell police his brother's cover story that he was away in Iceland working on a global warming project.
The sentencing came as the full details of how hundreds of clubbers escaped death last summer were revealed.
Two car bombs packed with improvised explosives and gas cylinders failed to go off in central London only because of a technical failing.
One was positioned outside the Tiger Tiger club in the capital city, which was filled with 556 clubbers and dozens of staff. And a second was further down Haymarket.
The court heard how bombers tried to trigger the devices with their mobile phones but the fume-filled cars failed to ignite.
The club was evacuated safely in 10 minutes and no one was hurt thanks to the quick thinking of the club manager.
Kafeel Ahmed, brother of jailed Sabeel, led the nightclub attack the day before he drove his car bomb in Glasgow Airport's terminal building.
The terrorist, who had a doctorate in engineering, died of his injuries after he drove his car bomb into the airport terminal building.
Once again a technical fault prevented a huge loss of life.
Two other doctors, Mohammed Asha and Bilal Abdulla, are alleged to have been responsible for all three car bombs and will stand trial in October.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, told the court today that Kafeel and others had planned a campaign of bomb attacks across Britain.
They targeted "clubs and places of entertainment where the devastating effect and loss of life would be the greatest".
Mr Laidlaw said: "This was to be a campaign the bombers hoped would increase the level of fear felt by the general population in this country in the further threat of Islamic extremism.
The bombers used two Mercedes bought in Warrington and Sheffield and constructed the homemade devices in a bomb factory in Paisley, Scotland.
This involved a combination of fuel, gas bottles, electronic equipment and circuitboards fitted to a timer operated by mobile phone. The cars were driven south arriving in central London in the early hours of 29 June.
The green Mercedes was parked close to Tiger Tiger but was spotted after staff had called an ambulance for an unrelated incident at about 1.40am.
"The lights were on but nobody was with the vehicle," said Mr Laidlaw.
"A club door supervisor and the general manager approached the Mercedes and looked into the front nearside window.
"Gas vapour appeared to be venting and billowing up inside.
"There appeared to be a white duvet covering materials on the rear seat and there was a strong smell of liquid petroleum gas.
"The ambulance staff looked into the vehicle and with considerable presence of mind the manager arranged with the assistance of the ambulance staff to contact the police and begin the process of clearing the street and area around the club.
"Arrangements were made to evacuate the club by the rear emergency door and complete evacuation was achieved in 10 minutes."
The bomb squad was called and the device was disarmed.
At 3.15am a traffic warden ticketed a blue Mercedes outside Canada House at the Trafalgar Square end of Haymarket, where it had been parked for at least an hour. The vehicle was taken to the NCP pound in Park Lane.
A "strong and strange" smell of chemicals was emanating from it and police were called. Examination of the bomb showed it had undergone "a small explosive event" but the main explosive charge had not detonated.
"Had the ignition of petrol vapour taken place it would have created an initial explosion and the rapid flames set off the gas cylinders leading to a series of explosions accelerated by the petrol in the car," said Mr Laidlaw.
"The failure of the vapour to ignite in each vehicle, despite the activation of at least one device, was probably due to the fuel/air ratio exceeding ignition levels.
"Phone records show that there had been a number of attempts by the two men to activate the devices."
Mr Laidlaw then told the court: "These were plainly potentially viable devices which could quite easily have killed many, many people - that was the intention of the bombers.
"Fortunately, not for want of trying on their part, the devastation didn't work as intended."
The bombers met up in Edgware Road, and stayed the night in London before returning by coach to Glasgow.
The next day they took a Cherokee jeep packed with another bomb and drove it at speed into the airport terminal building.
Although the bomb did not explode, a fire broke out which was to kill Ahmed.
Mr Laidlaw said the airport attack took place on its busiest day of the year so far as passengers queued just yards away.
He told the court that Ahmed planned a suicide operation as he suspected the police were closing in.
He said: "When outside the terminal, Kafeel Ahmed, who was driving the Jeep, turned the vehicle sharply and crashed it into the pillars to the right-hand side of one of the entrance doors.
"He then, having found himself from his perspective out of position, reversed the Jeep and made the first of a number of attempts to drive the vehicle through the airport door, repeatedly hitting pillars and the door frame.
"Despite his efforts, the vehicle became trapped. Those who witnessed him described a set and determined face as he stared forward.
"At that point, the vehicle was then 20 feet from passengers queuing within the terminal building.
"His passenger lowered his window and threw a petrol bomb across the bonnet in the direction of the taxi rank and then threw a second of these devices in the opposite direction.
"At the same time the driver, the defendant's brother, began to pour and splash fuel from a can on to the area outside the car window and appeared to throw a petrol bomb.
"He got out of the vehicle and was engulfed in flames that swept around the Jeep and terminal building.
"He appeared to try and prevent others from getting to him or the vehicle. He kicked out but eventually, he being on fire, he was extinguished, subdued, handcuffed and arrested."
The attack caused panic within the terminal and a number of people suffered minor injuries in the chaos that followed.
The court heard that on June 30, Ahmed sent his brother a text message directing him to an online email account containing several documents relating to the three bombings.
Mr Laidlaw said these included instructions on how to frustrate the police. They also revealed he intended to kill himself but ordered Sabeel to keep quiet.
In long interviews with the police after his arrest which lasted until the middle of July he continued to withhold the information "in accordance with instructions he had received from his brother", said Mr Laidlaw.
Sabeel was originally from Bangalore where he went to university and qualified as a doctor.
He came to the UK in April 2005 and was granted a visa to continue his medical studies.
At first he lived with his brother in Cambridge and later worked at hospitals in and around Liverpool.
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