First suspect in court over British car bomb plot

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - An Iraqi-trained doctor appeared in court on Saturday in connection with failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow and was told he would stay in jail until his next court appearance, at the Old Bailey on July 27.

Bilal Abdulla, 27, was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. He spoke only to confirm his name and address.

Abdulla is the only person charged so far over the suspected al Qaeda-linked plot in which eight Middle Eastern and Indian medics have been arrested, seven in Britain and one in Australia.

On Saturday police were granted an extra seven days to question five of the suspects who are being held in London.

Abdulla was arrested after a jeep crashed into the terminal building at Glasgow airport a week ago and burst into flames.

The father of suspect Kafeel Ahmed, 27, told the Times of India he had identified his son from television pictures.

Ahmed has been in hospital with 90 percent burns since the Glasgow attack -- witnesses say he set both himself and the crashed vehicles on fire.

"When we saw the footage of a person being carried to the hospital, followed by the blast and the police suspecting him to be the suicide bomber, we identified that he was our son," his father Maqbool Ahmed told the paper from Bangalore.

Kafeel's brother Sabeel, 26, was arrested in Liverpool, northwest England, later the same evening.

His father said Sabeel had been allowed by British police to call him every day since his arrest.

"Sabeel said he was treated well by the police and he has been cooperating with them," Maqbool Ahmed said.

"We enquired about Kafeel but he refused to speak about him or give any details."

LONG STRUGGLE

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday that investigations were "getting to the bottom" of the cell behind the failed bombings.

Brown's new security minister Admiral Alan West told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper he expected the battle against radicalization to be a long one.