Watch the 'martyrdom videos'

The man accused of plotting to lead a wave of suicide bomb attacks on transatlantic airliners wanted to tell the world he was acting on the wishes of Osama bin Laden, a court heard yesterday.

A “martyrdom video” recorded by Abdullah Ahmed Ali was played in full to the jury at Woolwich Crown Court which is trying him and seven other men on charges of plotting to commit mass murder.

In the video, Mr Ali, 27, said: “Sheikh Osama warned you many times to leave our lands or you will be destroyed and now the time has come for you to be destroyed.”

Mr Ali’s 16-minute tirade was delivered as he sat in front of a black flag, wearing a chequered headscarf and a black shirt. The video was filmed at a flat in Walthamstow, east London, which Mr Ali and his associates allegedly turned into their bomb factory.

On screen he became intensely animated, jabbing his finger at the camera and pausing twice to mop sweat from his face with a towel.

Off screen a voice, which was not identified, was heard asking Mr Ali to explain why he was prepared to take part in the attacks despite the fact that “innocent people” would die.

Mr Ali responded: "You show more care and concern for animals than you do for the Muslim ummah [the Islamic nation]. Those who know me, who really know me, will know that I was the happiest person that they could ever have imagined and those that know me know that I was over the moon that Allah has given me this opportunity to lead this blessed operation.

“Thanks to God I swear by Allah, I have the desire since the age of 15 or 16 to participate in Jihad in the path of Allah. I had the desire since then to punish the kuffar [unbeliever] for the evil they are doing. I had the desire since then for Jannah [paradise] for the Koran. I want to go to my prophet and his companions. Leave us alone. Stop meddling in our affairs and we will leave you alone."

Sitting in the dock, flanked by prison guards, Mr Ali watched the video along with his co-defendants.

The court was also shown the full recordings of videos made by four of the other defendants in the case and heard that all were found on a cassette hidden in a garage at the home of another man, Assad Sarwar. Further video recordings were found in Mr Sarwar’s car.

Edited versions of the videos, the court heard previously, were to have been released to the media and on the internet after any attacks took place.

Police searches of Mr Sarwar’s home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, where he lived with his parents and sisters, are also alleged to have uncovered bomb making equipment, including large quantities of hydrogen peroxide.

The alleged plotters are accused of planning to detonate liquid explosive devices, disguised as soft drinks and disposable cameras, on board seven airliners en route from Heathrow to six cities in the United States and Canada.

Six of those on trial made suicide videos and are said to have been planning to die in the attacks. The two other men were allegedly key planners in the operation.

All of the men were arrested in a series of police raids in east London and Buckinghamshire in August 2006 which also triggered a global airline security alert.

The defendants - Ali, Sarwar, 27, Tanvir Hussain, 27, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, Waheed Zaman, 23, of Queen’s Road and Umar Islam (aka Brian Young) deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions onboard aircraft. The trial continues.

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