Terror trial doctor can stay in Britain

The Government is no longer seeking to deport a doctor who was accused of involvement in the London and Glasgow bomb plots.

The Home Office had maintained that Mohammed Asha still presented a threat to national security, despite being cleared at trial.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) was due to hear the case against him in October, but it has been withdrawn. At a Siac bail hearing in January, lawyers for the Home Secretary said Dr Asha should be sent back to Jordan.

The Home Office claimed thathe had provided "substantial funds" to the Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla, who was sentenced to 32 years' imprisonment for conspiracy to murder.

But the panel, chaired by Mr Justice Mitting, ruled that Dr Asha could be released on bail, to report to police in Birmingham once a week.

Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed, who died in the attack, planted two bombs in the West End in June 2007 but when that plot failed, they drove a Jeep packed with petrol bombs and gas canisters into Glasgow airport.

Dr Asha, 28, was cleared at Woolwich Crown Court of conspiracy to murder and cause explosions.

He had told the tribunal that he wanted to keep working as an NHS neurosurgeon. Officials are still examining his immigration status but a Home Office source said the Government no longer sought to deport him on the grounds that his presence was "not conducive to the public good".