Anti Federalist
04-28-2009, 06:22 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/28/july-7-london-bomb-trial
Trio not guilty of helping 7/7 London bombers
Three British Muslims were today cleared of helping the 7 July bombers choose their targets by carrying out a reconnaissance mission in London seven months before the attacks that killed 52 people and injured almost 1,000.
A jury at Kingston crown court unanimously found Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all from Beeston, Leeds, not guilty of conspiring with the four bombers to cause explosions, after deliberating for seven days.
They are the only people ever to be charged over the attacks in 2005, which sparked the biggest criminal investigation in British history, taking more than 18,450 statements and collecting at least 37,000 exhibits.
Ali and Shakil were convicted of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training. They were about to board a flight to Pakistan when they were arrested in 2007.
The trio – who spent two days in December 2004 in London with the bus bomber, Hasib Hussain, were joined there by another of the attackers, Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train – had denied the charges and said they were on a sightseeing trip.
They went on the London Eye and visited the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium as they travelled around the capital.
The prosecution alleged they conducted a "hostile reconnaissance" of potential targets, claiming it was "an important first step in what was, by then, a settled plan to cause explosions in the UK".
Detectives first realised they may have been to London with Hussain and Lindsay while analysing the details of 4,700 phone numbers and 90,000 calls. "Cell site analysis" pinpointing the location of a mobile phone when a call is made revealed that all five men had been in the city on December 16 and 17. The analysis allowed the group's movements across London to be mapped.
But there was no CCTV footage to show what they had been doing and no proof they had even been on the underground, where three of the four bombs would later explode.
The three defendants, who had all previously attended jihadi training camps in Pakistan, two of them with 7 July ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, admitted making the visit to London but insisted it had nothing to do with the bombings.
They said it was an entirely innocent social outing planned because Ali wanted to visit his sister and the others wanted to see some of the capital's landmarks at the same time.
Trio not guilty of helping 7/7 London bombers
Three British Muslims were today cleared of helping the 7 July bombers choose their targets by carrying out a reconnaissance mission in London seven months before the attacks that killed 52 people and injured almost 1,000.
A jury at Kingston crown court unanimously found Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all from Beeston, Leeds, not guilty of conspiring with the four bombers to cause explosions, after deliberating for seven days.
They are the only people ever to be charged over the attacks in 2005, which sparked the biggest criminal investigation in British history, taking more than 18,450 statements and collecting at least 37,000 exhibits.
Ali and Shakil were convicted of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training. They were about to board a flight to Pakistan when they were arrested in 2007.
The trio – who spent two days in December 2004 in London with the bus bomber, Hasib Hussain, were joined there by another of the attackers, Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train – had denied the charges and said they were on a sightseeing trip.
They went on the London Eye and visited the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium as they travelled around the capital.
The prosecution alleged they conducted a "hostile reconnaissance" of potential targets, claiming it was "an important first step in what was, by then, a settled plan to cause explosions in the UK".
Detectives first realised they may have been to London with Hussain and Lindsay while analysing the details of 4,700 phone numbers and 90,000 calls. "Cell site analysis" pinpointing the location of a mobile phone when a call is made revealed that all five men had been in the city on December 16 and 17. The analysis allowed the group's movements across London to be mapped.
But there was no CCTV footage to show what they had been doing and no proof they had even been on the underground, where three of the four bombs would later explode.
The three defendants, who had all previously attended jihadi training camps in Pakistan, two of them with 7 July ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, admitted making the visit to London but insisted it had nothing to do with the bombings.
They said it was an entirely innocent social outing planned because Ali wanted to visit his sister and the others wanted to see some of the capital's landmarks at the same time.