4:42pm Tuesday 8th July 2008
By Lucinda Adam
THE wife of a High Wycombe terror suspect has denied her husband was a radicalised Muslim, despite extremist propoganda being found at their home.
Rizwana Khan, who was three months pregnant when Umar Islam, 30, was arrested by anti-terrorist police, said today the material must have been left there by her drug-addicted MI5 informant brother.
The former High Wycombe postman, previously known as Brian Young of Chairborough Road, is among eight men on trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
They are accused of plotting to detonate liquid bombs aboard passenger aircraft leaving Heathrow bound for the USA in August 2006.
A search of the couple's home in Stratford, east London, revealed a book entitled 'The Virtues of Jihad' on the coffee table and an audio cassette called 'The role of women in Jihad' on top of the fridge.
CDs in the kitchen were found to contain the martyrdom video of July 7 bomber Mohammed Siddique Khan, footage of Osama Bin Laden and an Islamic ruling permitting suicide bombings.
Questioned about the material, Ms Khan, 25, said her brother was always leaving things around their home and added: "He was off his head on drugs most of the time."
Jurors heard the book had a piece of card inserted at the page headed 'The art of spying.'
Ms Khan said: "That's interesting. Are you aware my brother is an informant for MI5? I know because he told me."
She added: "If he is working for who he says he is working for and he is interested in the things he has left at my flat, it is possible he left it at my flat."
Prosecutor Peter Wright said: "Your husband was both radicalised and extreme in his views, wasn't he?"
Ms Khan replied: "If I thought he waslike that I would never have married him. I know that Umar is not into this kind of stuff."
Woolwich Crown Court has also heard how Islam made a martyrdom video in which he said: "This is an obligation on me as a Muslim to wage jihad against the Kuffars' non-believers."
Ms Khan told jurors she had no idea why her husband had made the film and added: "They weren't Umar's words. For a start he was not that kind of person.
"It was so unbelievable to see him like that. I thought he was a complete idiot frankly. I was so angry because we had all these plans.
"I was three months pregnant around that time and I'm thinking 'Were you thinking of me and your baby when you made that video?"
Jurors heard that the black and white scarf and blue robe used in all the martyrdom videos was never found.
It was suggested Islam had taken them away to pass on to others to make further videos.
But Ms Khan produced the items in court and claimed she had found them in a bag in her parents' home in West Ham, east London.
She added: "It was only a year later, because it looked similar to the clothes he was wearing on the video, that I realised. I took it to my lawyer."
Ms Khan was arrested and interviewed by police a year after her husband's arrest because of comments made on surveillance recordings about her finding his martyrdom script.
She told jurors she had no idea what Islam was referring to on the tapes.
Ms Khan also insisted that her husband only applied for a new passport shortly before his arrest to change the incorrect date of birth.
Mr Wright asked: "Is it simply because you are trying to cover up your husband's involvement in this conspiracy?"
Ms Khan replied: "No."
The mother-of-two, who is of Pakistani origin, earlier told how her family were opposed to her marriage to Umar Islam because of his race.
She said: "My family are quite racist and they had difficulty with me choosing someone who wasn't Asian in origin.
"They had a problem with the fact he was black.
"We had arguments because of this, he thought my family didn't think he was good enough for me.
"A couple of times he thought of leaving and we did separate for a while."
She told the court she normally wore a full Islamic veil but had come to court in a headscarf on the advice of her husband's lawyers.
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