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Last Updated: Tuesday, 5 April 2005, 16:11 GMT 17:11 UK
Would-be bomber born of privilege
Rahaman-Alan cut himself off from his family for three years
Would-be suicide bomber Hazil Rahaman-Alan was used to a life of wealth and privilege in his homeland, Venezuela.

His mother and father, a Trinidad immigrant who worked in the public relations office of the Saudi Arabian embassy, were pillars of society.

And his two older brothers are both high achievers - one becoming a doctor and the other an engineer.

But it was his father's death which sent Rahaman-Alan's world into a spin.

At the time of his arrest, Rahaman-Alan's shocked family - who called him Adel and thought of him as quiet and spiritual - had not seen him for three years.

"Adel was very sick and worried after his father's death," said his mother Afrose.

Medina study

"Adel came to me and said he wanted to get away. We assumed he had returned to Medina to resume his theological studies and had then become a missionary."

It was after university and a spell working in the embassy that Rahaman-Alan had decided to go to the holy city of Medina to study to be a Muslim preacher, only returning to Caracas when his father became ill.

Back in Venezuela, Rahaman-Alan joined the rest of the family living in various homes on a private housing complex outside the capital.

He was also briefly in hospital for depression.

But it was not only his father's death which left him troubled - there was also the break-up of his marriage and illness which afflicted his elderly mother.

Cut off

So while his family believed he was back in Medina, Rahaman-Alan - living on a shoestring - travelled extensively between 2001 and 2002 visiting Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Germany.

He was said to have been moved by the plight of starving children in Africa, a problem, he later claimed, he had wanted to highlight as a suicide bomber.

While in Germany he claimed asylum using a false name, date of birth and by falsely claiming he was a Palestinian.

But after his application was refused he returned to Venezuela where he continued to live, still cutting to cut himself off from his family, wife and young daughter.

That is until he bought a grenade from a poor Caracas district and stepped on to a jet headed for London.

Gatwick grenade suspect remanded
17 Feb 03 |  UK News

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