Tony Blair ‘may have been terrorism target’
Suspect stopped with former UK prime minister’s address in his car denies charges of preparing for acts of terrorism.
A man charged with plotting terrorist attacks in the UK may have been planning to target Tony Blair, a court has heard.
Prosecutors told the Old Bailey on Tuesday that Erol Incedal, 26, had the address of the former prime minister in his car when he was stopped for a traffic offence in September last year.
The traffic stop happened a month before Incedal was arrested with another man, Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadja, and charged with a number of terrorism-related offences.
Prosecutor Richard Whittam told the jury of the September traffic stop: “In the car, a black Mercedes, detectives found a piece of paper with the address of former prime minister Tony Blair written on it. In the context of this case as a whole you may think it has some significance.”
Whittam said that the men were charged with preparing an attack against a limited number of individuals, an individual of significance or a more wide-ranging and indiscriminate attack such as the one in Mumbai in 2008.
The trial also heard that the men were carrying documents relating to bomb-making when they were arrested.
Incedal denies preparing acts of terrorism and collecting information useful to terrorism. The jury heard that Rarmoul-Bourhadja admitted possessing documents on bomb-making.
Prosecutors originally asked for the trial to be held in complete secrecy – an unprecedented move in modern British legal history.
The request was denied. Instead, the trial will be heard in three parts – some in open court and others in secret. One part of the trial will be attended by journalists who will be banned from reporting the evidence they hear.