Airline plot accused posed as newlywed

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - One of eight men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic airliners was a "shadowy figure" with links to Pakistan who arrived in Britain on a false passport pretending to be a newlywed, a court heard on Monday.

Mohammed Gulzar, 26, was a senior figure in the plot to bring down at least seven planes in mid-flight as they headed from London's Heathrow to Canada and the United States, the jury at Woolwich Crown Court in east London was told.

"Mr Gulzar is ... a far more shadowy figure in this conspiracy," prosecutor Peter Wright told the court.

"Mohammed Gulzar entered the United Kingdom as a radicalised Islamist pursuing a violent agenda."

Gulzar had arrived in Britain from South Africa on July 18, 2006, less than a month before police arrested the men who prosecutors say were not far from carrying out their suicide bombing mission.

He was using a South African passport under the false name, Altaf Ravat, and was with a woman he said was his wife. However she flew out of Britain shortly afterwards and Gulzar never took his return flight.

"The circumstances ... indicate an extremely pressing reason for him to be present in the United Kingdom during this time and that his arrival as a newlywed with his wife was little more than cover for some ulterior reason," Wright said.

When Gulzar was arrested at his home in east London, police found a mobile phone that had only been in contact with a Pakistani number, Wright said.