icSurrey Online : Court told how terror suspect 'missed his mum'

Court told how terror suspect 'missed his mum'

Nov 15 2006

A TERROR suspect cried himself to sleep at a military training camp and said that he missed his mum, a court heard.

Shujah Ud-Dir-Mahmood, 19, is one of four Crawley men accused of being in a gang of seven British muslims which allegedly plotted to build a deadly fertiliser bomb.

A trial at the Old Bailey heard how members of the group attended a training camp in Pakistan in 2003 where they learned to fire weapons, it is claimed.

The court heard last week how Mahmood - who was 16 at the time - said the experience had been one of the worst in his life.

On his first day in the witness stand Mahmood described how his brother and fellow defendant Omar Khyam, 24, also of Crawley, had left him on the first day.

He said: "I got quite depressed when I was there. I used to spend a lot of time on my own, sitting in a ditch.

"I used to start crying when everyone else went to sleep. I missed my mum a lot."

Later in the trial Mahmood told the jury he had been at the camp for about three weeks.

He said: "They would give you an AK-47, loaded. There was one for each person.

"There wasn't really any instruction. It was sort of a role play."

Mahmood told the court he was sent to Pakistan in the summer of 2003 by his mother because he was getting into trouble at home.

He claimed he thought he would be spending time with his brother and father.

But within two days of arriving, Khyam had allegedly abandoned him at the camp with fellow defendants Anthony Garcia, 24, and Jawad Akbar, 23.

He said: "I never meant to start any training.I remember Khyam coming up before the end of the camp and I spoke to him about it.

"I said to him: 'Look, I'm at this camp, we're doing training, we're not being fed well, we're doing night training, what is this c***?

"I said I wanted to leave. But he said: 'It's not as simple as calling a taxi and saying let's go mate.

"He said I was going to have to stick it out and I couldn't just go like that."

Mahmood is accused of plotting to build a bomb alongside Khyam, also of Crawley, Jawad Akbar, 23, from Crawley, Anthony Garcia, 24, from Essex, Waheed Mahmood, 35, from Crawley, Nabeel Hussain and Salhuddir Amin, of Luton, Beds.

The group was arrested in March 2004, following months of undercover work and bugging by MI5.

Recordings picked up Akbar and Khyam allegedly discussing targets, including the Ministry of Sound nightclub in central London and Bluewater shopping mall, in Kent.

All seven deny conspiracy with others to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or injure property between January 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004.

Hussain, Garcia and Khyam also deny possessing the 600kg of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism between November 11, 2003 and March 31, 2004.

Khyam and Shujah Mahmodd further deny possessing aluminium powder for purposes connected with terrorism between October 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004.

The trial continues.