Three guilty over 21/7 bomb plot

[N.O.R.F]

Remember this?

 

 

Three guilty over 21/7 bomb plot

 

Three men have been found guilty of plotting to carry out suicide bombings on London's transport network on 21 July 2005.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, and Ramzi Mohammed, 25, were convicted of conspiracy to murder.

 

Verdicts on three other defendants, who all deny charges against them, are still being considered by the jury.

 

Woolwich Crown Court heard how the cell tried to set off bombs on the Tube and a bus, two weeks after the 7/7 attacks.

 

Majority verdict

 

The suspects had claimed the bombs were fakes, and their actions had been intended as a protest against the war in Iraq.

 

Majority verdict

 

The suspects had claimed the bombs were fakes, and their actions had been intended as a protest against the war in Iraq.

 

After unanimously returning three guilty verdicts against Ibrahim, Omar and Mohammed, jurors were sent out to continue their deliberations on the three other defendants, Hussain Osman, 28, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, and Adel Yahya, 24.

 

The judge, Mr Justice Fulford QC, said he would accept a majority verdict of 10-to-2.

 

Mohammed had targeted a train at Oval station in south London, Omar was on board a train at Warren Street in central London and Ibrahim had boarded a bus in Hackney, east London.

 

The six men have been on trial for six months.

 

The trial heard that dozens of people would have been killed if the bombs, which were made of a similar hydrogen peroxide mixture used by the 7 July attackers, had detonated properly.

 

Mohammed and Ibrahim were captured a week later in a flat in west London.

 

Omar was arrested in Birmingham after travelling there disguised as a woman in a burka.

 

Nigel Sweeney QC, prosecutor, had told the trial the men chose a date "just 14 days after the carnage of July 7".

 

But the trial heard evidence that the conspiracy "had been in existence long before the events of July 7" and was not a "hastily-arranged copycat" operation.

 

Mr Sweeney said: "The failure of those bombs to explode owed nothing to the intention of these defendants, rather it was simply the good fortune of the travelling public that day that they were spared."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6284350.stm

[N.O.R.F]

'Allah instructed' 21/7 suspect

 

An alleged 21/7 bomber has told a court Allah instructed him to put a rucksack on when police came to arrest him.

Woolwich Crown Court heard officers almost shot Yassin Omar, who was found standing in a bath wearing what they believed to be a bag of explosives.

 

But the 26-year-old denied wanting to be killed by police with a Koran on his back in order to become a martyr.

 

Six men deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions on London transport on 21 July 2005.

 

Earlier this week, Mr Omar admitted setting off a device on a Tube train near Warren Street, but says it was carried out in protest at the Iraq war and was not meant to be deadly.

 

Bucket and books

 

Giving evidence for the fourth day, he was asked if he wanted to die with the Koran on his back.

 

"That is not the case," he replied.

 

"If they saw I had a rucksack on me then they would think twice before they shot me, and it worked. Allah answered my supplication," he said.

 

Mr Omar fled London in a burka following the 21 July attacks and was arrested at a house in Birmingham six days later, the court has heard.

 

The jury was shown the rucksack he was wearing when he was arrested, which had contained a bucket, mobile phone charger and some Islamic books.

 

'Next bomb'

 

Mr Omar was accused of telling a man he stayed with in Birmingham that his actions on 21 July were a "failed attempted bombing". He denied this.

 

Stephen Kamlish QC, for co-defendant Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, said: "You said you were worried about the next attempt."

 

"These stories just keep on getting more fantastic. That never happened," Mr Omar replied.

 

Mr Kamlish later told the court that the "next one" Mr Omar was referring to was a bomb that had been left in the sideboard at his flat - which Mr Asiedu claims to have dismantled.

 

Mr Omar, of New Southgate, north London, is charged alongside Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, from Stoke Newington, north London; Ramzi Mohammed, 25, of North Kensington, west London; Hussain Osman, 28, of no fixed address; Adel Yahya, 24, of High Road, Tottenham, north London; and Mr Asiedu, 34, of no fixed address.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6643411.stm

[Peacenow]

To think the British will now have pay to keep these people, fed and housed in prison for the rest of the lives. They really are good for nothing.

[N.O.R.F]

21/7 suspect relives burka flight

 

 

An alleged 21 July bomber took a burka from his mother-in-law to escape London in disguise because he feared police would shoot him, a court has heard.

Yassin Omar, 26, from north London, has admitted setting off a device on the Tube, but says it was in protest at the Iraq war and not meant to be deadly.

 

He said he ran away after police killed Jean Charles de Menezes by mistake, fearing he would be shot too.

 

Six men deny conspiracy to murder and cause explosions in July 2005.

 

'Felt bad'

 

In his second day of giving evidence at Woolwich Crown Court, Mr Omar told the court that when his device was detonated it sounded like a champagne cork and some fellow passengers "thought it was a joke".

 

"Some of them, they looked alarmed. Some of the ladies, they panicked," he said.

 

"I felt quite bad - my intention was not to do that to people."

 

He added that the incident was timed before lunch when there were fewer people on the Tube, because he wanted to avoid a "stampede".

 

When he heard of the shooting of Mr Menezes he thought his co-defendant Hussain Osman had been killed, he went on.

 

He fled to Birmingham by coach, dressed in a long black burka - a garment that covers the face and body - and carrying a white handbag.

 

"I was very scared, I thought they would have shot me dead," he said.

 

"I realised that this thing had taken a wrong turn and now an innocent man had been shot."

 

Mr Omar said he took one of his mother-in-law's burkas because she "had lots of them", adding that without a veil the police would have found him easily.

 

'Taser gun'

 

He was arrested at a house by armed officers from West Midlands Police on 27 July.

 

The defendant said he was woken by "something like a robot making a lot of noise" and fled to the bathroom where he was found standing in the bath, fully clothed and wearing a rucksack.

 

"I realised that today might be my last. I was praying to Allah and thinking they are going to shoot me and I am not going to have a chance.

 

"I thought if I was wearing a bag they would have to think twice and ask what I had got in there - then I would have had a chance to explain."

 

Mr Omar claimed he was beaten by the officers and hit with a Taser stun gun during the arrest.

 

"It was the worst feeling," he said. "It was like someone putting electricity into me. They put the Taser on my head and my heart.

 

"I thought 'Because they cannot shoot me they are trying to electrocute me to death'."

 

Mr Omar and Mr Osman, 28, of no fixed address, are on trial with Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, from Stoke Newington, north London, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, of North Kensington, west London, Adel Yahya, 24, of High Road, Tottenham, north London, and Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, of no fixed address.