Plotter's wife 'knew he was planning to blow up planes'

The wife of one of the liquid bomb plotters knew he planned mass murder by blowing up passenger jets but failed to tell police, a court heard today.

Cossor Ali, 28, sympathised with her husband's extremist beliefs and kept his suicide terror plan a secret, Inner London crown court was told.

Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, read the jury an entry that she made in a notebook in 2005 when she was waiting for Abdulla Ahmed Ali to return from Pakistan.

It said: "I am growing more and more attached to the cause for which you are striving for, and the reason for which we are apart. I hope and pray Allah grants your wish and gives you the highest level of Shahada (martyrdom)."

Police found notes which Ali had made while listening to lectures on jihad, which had his wife's fingerprints on them.

Islamic extremist books were found in their flat in Walthamstow, as was Ali's will. It said: "We know with full certainty that we are going to die so let us aim high and strive for the best death i.e. shahadah (martyrdom), and let us do the most pleasing deed to Allah and make the greatest sacrifice."

Interviewed by police, she said she thought her husband had bought a powdered drink, Tang, from Pakistan because he was developing his own product. But this was to colour liquid explosives so they looked like soft drinks, the court was told.

Cossor Ali denies having information of material assistance in preventing her husband, who was sentenced last year to 40 years in prison, committing an act of terrorism. The trial continues.