London - An Islamist extremist who worked as a British Airways computer expert conspired with a radical preacher to blow up a plane bound for the United States, a court was told on Tuesday.
Rajib Karim, 31, moved to Britain from Bangladesh in 2006 and was employed with the airline in Newcastle, joining a gym, playing football and never airing extreme views, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
But all the while, the prosecution claimed, he was communicating with a terrorist cell and radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki who is believed to be in Yemen.
“The defendant, as will become plain to you from the ideological and operational material recovered from his home after his arrest, is entirely committed to an extreme jihadist and religious cause,” Jonathan Laidlaw, prosecuting, told the court.
“He believes that terrorism, including the murder of civilians, is permissible to establish, as he views it, a true Islamic state.
“The defendant, as you will see from his own writings, was anxious himself to carry out such an attack and he was determined to seek martyrdom - to die and to sacrifice himself for his cause.”
In secret email exchanges, Karim, who had access to offices in Newcastle and London's Heathrow airport, shared details of his BA contacts, the Press Association reported.
The prosecution said he had received a degree of terrorist training and was highly skilled in conducting secret communications, including codes and encryption.
The defendant is accused of plotting to blow up a plane - no details of which were immediately available - sharing information of use to groups such as al Qaeda, offering to help financial or disruptive attacks on BA and gaining a job in Britain to “exploit terrorist purposes”.
He denies the charges. The jury was told that Karim pleaded guilty to three terrorism charges on Monday. - Reuters