JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — A man suspected of plotting a terrorist gun or bomb attack in Britain had former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s address in his car, a prosecutor said Tuesday during opening arguments in a trial held under contentious conditions of secrecy.
Erol Incedal, a 26-year-old Londoner, is accused of preparing a terrorist act and possessing bomb-making instructions. He denies the charges.
In opening arguments at London’s Central Criminal Court, lawyer Richard Whittam said the Blair address might be significant, though prosecutors don’t argue that Incedal “had settled on a specific target or a particular methodology” for an attack.
He said Incedal may have been planning to attack a “significant” individual or to stage indiscriminate Mumbai-style shootings.
As leader, Blair took the U.K. into the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a decision that remains widely unpopular in Britain.
Whittam said the piece of paper with Blair’s address was found in a glasses case in Incedal’s car when he was stopped for a traffic offense in September 2013. He said that during the search police placed a listening device in the car, which picked up snippets of chatter about “bin Laden, fatwa, Syria and jihad.”
The prosecutor said other evidence includes a notebook containing the words “Oh you who believe. Fight those of the infidel who are near to you,” and Internet searches on Incedal’s phone for the Islamic State militant group.
Incedal was arrested in October 2013, and prosecutors sought to have the trial held in secret on national security grounds.
British judges often impose reporting restrictions while trials are underway, usually to avoid prejudicing future proceedings, and portions of trials have previously been held without media or the public present. But lawyers said an entire secret criminal trial was unprecedented.
After a challenge from media organizations, a judge ruled that some sections should be held in public, including part of the opening statement and the verdict.
Some journalists will attend the full proceedings, but will not be allowed to report on them as they unfold.
A second suspect arrested with Incedal, Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar, has pleaded guilty to possessing a document entitled “bomb making” and will be sentenced at the end of the trial.
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