Tube driver cleared of jihad charge

A Tube driver was today cleared of planning to travel to Afghanistan or Pakistan with the intention of taking part in a "violent jihad", a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said.

Amir Ali, who drove trains on the London Underground Bakerloo Line for five years, was alleged to have purchased a plane ticket to travel to Islamabad and written a farewell letter to his family telling them that "Allah and his prophet Mohammed" came first, jurors were told.

When police searched the 28-year-old's home they found pictures of him posing with weapons including two AK47 rifles and a self-loading pistol, prosecutor Duncan Penny said.

But Ali, of Ilford, Essex, was found not guilty at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court of preparation for acts of terrorism between April 2006 and March last year.