Mohammed Asha’s 1998 school leaver’s report showed just why his brothers and sisters had nicknamed him "The Genius" of the family. The boy who won prizes for his Arabic poetry and dreamt of travelling to Cambridge to become a brain surgeon obtained 98.3 per cent in his exams at the school for Jordan‘s gifted children.

When Queen Noor visited the Jubilee School in Amman, Mohammed Asha was the obvious choice to meet and greet King Hussein’s fourth wife. The bookish and single-minded pupil never tired of being told that he was a credit to his school, family and ultimately country.

But his arrival in Cambridge to pursue his ambition of becoming a neurologist led to him meeting Kafeel Ahmed and Bilal Abdulla and, by association, becoming a terrorist suspect.

Today, after spending more than 16 months on remand in jail in connection with the bomb attacks on the West End of London and Glasgow Airport, Dr Asha emerged from court a free man.

Born in Saudi Arabia on September 6, 1980, Dr Asha is one of six brothers and two sisters. His family, which has its origins in Palestine, moved from his native country, where his father taught Arabic, to the Amman, Jordan, in 1991.

The family’s home is in the Jabal Zuhour neighbourhood. Dr Asha soon emerged as a talented child whose dedication to studying led to him winning a scholarship to the Jubilee School.

He went on to the University of Jordan’s medical school after obtaining the third highest mark in the national entrance exam for medicine.

It was during those studies that he used his passion for poetry to woo his childhood sweetheart, Marwah Dana, a laboratory researcher.

In 2004, he graduated in medicine with flying colours and, having set his heart on becoming a neurologist, competed against 500 medical students to gain a university place in Britain. He won a place at the University of Birmingham. Before travelling to Britain he married Marwah.

British authorities checked his work permit against the Watch List, the Government’s index of foreign suspects, and there was nothing to suggest that he was a threat to UK security. Jordanian intelligence services have since told The Times that the doctor has no criminal or security record.

Like most foreign doctors he moved from one NHS Trust to another. He worked at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust before finally moving to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.

But it was while at Addenbrokes Hospital in Cambridge that he met Ahmed and Abdulla.

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