A British Muslim convert charged with plotting acts of terrorism had socks with traces of explosive in his luggage when he was arrested in France, prosecutors told a court Tuesday.
Andrew Rowe, 34, who denies the charges, had been under surveillance by British police for about a year before they asked their French colleagues to hold him in Calais in October 2003 on his way back from a trip to Frankfurt.
A search of his luggage revealed two socks rolled up into balls that had traces of explosive, the prosecutors told the Old Bailey criminal court in London. The socks were connected by a length of cord.
The prosecutors said the traces of explosive were of a sort likely to be found in mortar shells or other military ordnance.
Police found a notebook with instructions in his handwriting at his London home on how to operate mortars. At his estranged wife's home in the central English city of Birmingham they found secret codes that identified airports, airline crew, army bases, weapons, explosives and counties in England.
"He was in possession of three separate things of the kind likely to be useful for the planning or preparation of an act of terrorism," said prosecutor Mark Ellison.
The prosecution told the court Rowe was also found to have videos and literature promoting jihad, or holy war, including a video praising the actions of the September 11, 2001 attackers.
Rowe converted to Islam in the 1990s and took the name Yusef Abdullah.
In 1995 he traveled to a war zone in Croatia during the Balkan conflict and received shrapnel injuries from a mortar shell. He later married and lived in west London.
The trial continues...
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