A 27 year old High Wycombe man was one of three key figures behind a terrorist plot to blow up seven aeroplanes in mid-air, a court was told.

Assad Ali Sarwar of Walton Drive was involved in a plot to cause "carnage" by detonating explosives contained in soft drink bottles, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

At the start of one of the most long-awaited terror trials in recent times, prosecutor Peter Wright QC said he and seven other men were to make a "violent and deadly statement of intent that would have a truly global impact."

Sarwar was arrested as he met co-defendant Ahmed Abdullah Ali in Walthamstow, London, on August 9 2006.

Mr Wright said: "Although these men live some distance apart, they were known to each other. They shared a common interest - it was an interest in which they were actively involved at that time."

He said this was an interest that "involved inflicting heavy casualties upon an unwitting civilian population, all in the name of Islam."

He went on: "These men were, we say, indifferent to the carnage that was to ensue in their plans for success."

Mr Wright said: "It is the prosecution case that these men, and others, were actively involved in a deadly plan designed to bring about what would have been, had they been successful, a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale.

He said Sarwar, along with Ali and co-defendant Mohammed Gulzar, were the men with "principal responsibility in achieving this goal".

He said: "They are the men with the cold-eyed certainty of a fanatic prepared to board an aircraft with the necessary ingredients to construct and detonate a device that would bring about the loss not only of their own life but also all of those who happened by chance to be making the same journey."

Sarwar, clean shaven and dressed in a suit, sat behind a large glass screen with his seven co-defendants and flanked by a dozen security guards as the case began yesterday, after a day of pre-trial legal matters.

Fortunately their intentions came to the attention of the police who had been carrying out surveillance, Mr Wright said, and this culminated in a series of arrests.

He said on August 9 Mr Sarwar was "in frequent contact" with Gulzar and Ali.

Ali and Sarwar met in the car park of Walthamstow town hall. When they left their respective vehicles at 9:45pm they were arrested, the court was told.

In Ali's right hand they found a USB computer memory stick, a portable device which carried computer files. Mr Wright told the court that Ali said the device contained information on holiday destinations.

Mr Wright said: "But when it was examined it was found to contain rather more than that."

The memory stick contained flight times baggage information and security advice in respect of restricted items for aeroplanes leaving London Heathrow airport.

The information regarded flights from October 2006 to August 2007, the court was told.

The trial continues.

5:42pm Thursday 3rd April 2008

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