Bloomberg : Briton Accused of Plot to Bomb Nightclub, Mall Begins Defense

Briton Accused of Plot to Bomb Nightclub, Mall Begins Defense

By Megan Murphy | September 14, 2006

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- One of seven Muslim men on trial in London for allegedly plotting a series of deadly bombings took to the stand today to begin his defense.

Omar Khyam, 24, who denies the charges against him, told the jury he became increasingly interested in Islam as a teenager, after becoming involved with a militant group at school and vacationing with his family in Pakistan. Khyam said he wouldn't testify about all his activities around the time of the alleged plot, to protect others still fighting for the Islamic cause.

``There are people around the world still working for that cause, still leading that cause, and I don't want them arrested,'' Khyam said at London's Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey. He is expected to remain on the stand for several days.

The seven suspects, aged between 19 and 34, are each charged with conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life or seriously injure property. Khyam and two other men are also facing one count of possessing more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate- laced fertilizer, a substance used in some explosives.

Prosecutors claim the group, most of whom were arrested in late March 2004, were intercepted in the final stages of a plot to bomb a series of unspecified targets in the U.K. The jury has heard police recordings of some of the men discussing attacks on the Bluewater shopping center in Kent, England, one of Europe's largest malls, and the Ministry of Sound, a London nightclub.

All of the men deny the charges against them. The trial, which began in March and also involves U.S. and Canadian terror suspects, is expected to last several more months.

To contact the reporter on this story: Megan Murphy in London at mmurphy41@bloomberg.net .