BRITAIN:British police put five members of an Islamist terror cell under surveillance more than a year before they tried to carry out "murderous suicide bombings" on the London transport network, a court heard yesterday.
Nigel Sweeney, prosecuting, showed a jury at a London court a series of photographs of the men he said were taken by officers carrying out surveillance at a camping weekend in the Lake District during the 2004 May bank holiday.
Mr Sweeney said the suspects were part of a group of 20 or more that appeared to pray communally and were addressed by a man who seemed to be their leader. "What the purpose of that trip was, even with a youngster or two present, you may wish to consider in due course," Mr Sweeney said.
Muktah Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, Yassin Omar, Hussein Osman, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Adel Yahya are accused of conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions.
The charges relate to an alleged attempt by members of the group to detonate homemade bombs on three underground trains and a bus two weeks after the July 7th, 2005, terrorist attacks on London public transport killed more than 50 people. All six deny the charges.
Mr Sweeney said the "extremist Muslim plot" had failed because the chemicals in the explosives were less concentrated than the men thought, perhaps because they had miscalculated or because the hot weather had changed the composition of the mixture. He said the six had made the explosives out of chapatti flour and hydrogen peroxide, which is used by hairdressers. The explosives were placed in plastic containers that had about 80 metal items taped to their outsides, to cause maximum shrapnel damage.
The five defendants accused of physically trying to carry out the attacks of July 21st - Mr Yahya had left the country - had wires leading from their rucksacks to their clothes, allowing them to detonate at a time of their choosing.
The prosecution said four of the men tried to detonate their bombs, three on the tube and one on a bus. Mr Mohammed turned so that the rucksack containing his bomb faced a mother with a pushchair in his underground carriage near Oval. Mr Asiedu lost his nerve, it was alleged, and dumped his bomb in a wooded area near Little Wormwood Scrubs. The trial continues.
- (Financial Times)