Suspect 'bored' making bomb vest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/8131189.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A student accused of making a "suicide vest" to be used with home-made explosives has told a court that making the garment "got a bit tedious".

Andrew Ibrahim, also known as Isa, told Winchester Crown Court that he had been considering making rockets for use with five batches of explosive he had made.

He has said he had been planning to set off an explosion "but not hurt people".

Mr Ibrahim, 20, from Bristol, denies making explosives with intent and preparing terrorist acts in April 2008.

He admits making an explosive.

On Thursday, Mr Ibrahim told the court that the vest was unfinished and lacked pockets at the time of his arrest in April last year.

"It got a bit tedious doing the hemming and it was not something that needed to be finished urgently," he said.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison QC disputed that Mr Ibrahim had been thinking about making rockets to fire with the explosives, suggesting the defendant was using that as a "low-level, less scary explanation" for buying parts.

'Martyrdom mindset'

The prosecution alleges Mr Ibrahim was planning to carry out a terrorist attack at the Broadmead shopping centre in Bristol.

It is also alleged the defendant became increasingly radicalised after converting to Islam, developing a "mindset of martyrdom" and changing his name to Isa.

He researched fundamentalism on the internet and searched online for techniques to manufacture explosives from household products, the prosecution says.

Mr Ibrahim says he built prototype suicide vests for a video he planned to post on the internet.

His efforts were a way to to "occupy time" while he struggled to beat addiction to heroin and crack cocaine, he says.

The trial continues.