Former Wycombe terror suspect "no monster"

Umar Islam made a "chilling" 15-minute video under the instruction of co-defendant Ahmed Ali days before their arrest over an alleged suicide plot to blow up transatlantic passenger jets in August 2006.

Laurence McNulty QC told Woolwich Crown Court a video made by Islam, 30, who grew up in High Wycombe, was meant for a propaganda documentary aimed at changing British foreign policy by threatening terrorism.

In the recording, Islam - formerly known as Brian Young - says "we love to die in the path of Allah. We love to die like you love life".

He has admitted conspiring to cause a public nuisance by making the video but denies conspiracy to murder and endanger life aboard aircraft.

Today, Mr McNulty said: "It's a performance because the video was meant to carry home a threat. There was going to be no act of terrorism which was going to provide the force to give the chilling message in the video.

"This is made quite clear by the directions by Mr Ali to "pump it up"."

Mr McNulty continued: "He Islam said he thought the video was supposed to be a threat for future action and he drafted his script as such.

"If this was meant to be a posthumous explanation for action Mr Islam has taken, then why is it all about action in the future?"

He went on to stress that a bug placed in the flat where in the video was recorded in Walthamstow, East London, has recorded the background discussion to the video being shot which at no point made reference to the alleged suicide bomb plot on jets.

He said: "You cannot convict Mr Islam without explaining away the absence of any discussion or any direction that would prove guilt."

He told the court Islam, who was brought up as a Christian and most recently lived in East London, was a spiritual and emotional young man, serious and hard working in his commitment to support his wife and children.

He said the family was planning to move to Pakistan to live a Muslim lifestyle.

"This was a threatening video made by somebody who expected he would be gone - living out of the country - before it was released, safely in Pakistan living his new life", he told the jury.

Islam's wife, father and friends have given evidence as character witnesses during the trial, which began in April.

Mr McNulty said: "We agree that to do something like the prosecution are alleging, a defendant would have to be a monster. What I'm getting at is Mr Islam is not that type of a man.

"We would submit this evidence doesn't match the profile of a suicide bomber, a person detached from life, emotion and feeling. He would have rejected his family and friends as non-believers worthy of death."

Referring to Mrs Khan, he added: "Do you think she would have planned a family with a man who was going to be an extremist, who was going to give himself to it and would not have been around to support her children?"

Mr McNulty described Ahmed Ali, said to be a ringleader in the alleged plot, as an "idea man".

But said: "We submit just because Mr Ali contemplates something, it doesn't follow that he agreed with everybody that made a video that that's what was going to happen."

Two CDs were found at Islam's house bearing his fingerprints which contained video including footage of July 7 London suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan's martyrdom video and the September 11 attack on New York, the court was told.

Mr McNulty reminded jurors today that Islam told them from the witness stand that he disagreed with both attacks but had watched them due to his interest in current affairs.

He said he had no concern about owning the footage because it was "just a documentary".

He also said that Islam's possession of three passports and of the Islamic robe worn by several defendants in the videos were insignificant evidence.

Mr Justice Culvert-Smith will begin summing up the case tomorrow before jurors are sent out to consider their verdict on the eight defendants who all deny conspiracy to murder and to endanger life aboard aircraft.