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Terror cell 'wanted to poison fans' 25 March 2006
One of the men accused of plotting to bomb Britain also discussed poisoning football fans, the Old Bailey heard.
Waheed Mahmood said beer cans could be spiked with poison which could also be used to poison burgers and takeaways, according to supergrass Mohammed Babar.
Babar, who has been given immunity from prosecution, was giving evidence again Mahmood and six others accused of plotting explosion in the UK. They all deny the charges.
Babar said he met Mahmood, 34, at a house in Pakistan in 2003 where they talked of Jihad. American Babar said: "He could not understand why all these UK brothers were coming over to Pakistan. They could easily do Jihad operation in England."
Giving examples, Waheed had allegedly said: "You could get a job in a soccer stadium as a beer vendor. You just put poison in a syringe, injecting it in a can and put a sticker on it which would stop it leaking and give it out. Or you could get mobile vending carts - all those vans going round selling burgers. He said he had done it. I didn't believe it.
"He said you could stand on street corners selling poison burgers and then just leave the area."
Babar alleged Waheed said another food poisoning scam would be to give out flyers for takeaways. "You didn't have to start a restaurant. You could make up flyers. It would just have a phone number and they could call up and order food and you just poison their food. When they call for a take-out you give them food. There is no business so they cannot track you down. You leave the area."
Babar, who has pleaded guilty in America to being part of the UK plot to use chemical fertiliser for bombs, said he and Britons he was talking to were unimpressed. "They were looking for old-style jihad where you could fight in battle. Almost everyone in the room would have preferred to go to Afghanistan to fight."
The seven men accused of being part of the terror cell are: Omar Khyam, 24, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex, Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Beds, Anthony Garcia, 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey. They deny conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between January 1 2003 and March 31 2004.
Khyam, Garcia and Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 600kg (1,300lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism. Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism. The trial was adjourned until Monday.
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