LONDON, 8 August 2005 — The wheels of British justice finally turned on the failed 7/21 bombing suspects, when the alleged Warren Street would-be bomber, 24-year-old Yasin Mohammed Omar, yesterday became the first of the five suspects to be charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to murder London transport passengers and possessing an explosive substance — none of which come under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2000.
Omar, of New Southgate in north London, will appear at Bow Street magistrate’s court this morning, although there are suggestions that the hearing may be held behind closed doors at the top-security Belmarsh Prison in southeast London, where many terrorism-related court appearances have been held in the past.
Police sources stressed that charges against three others held at the top-security Paddington Green police station in Edgware Road — 27-year-old Mukhtar Said Ibrahim, the ringleader, 25-year-old Ramzi Mohammed and his brother 22-year-old Fathi Mohammed — will also be brought soon. The remaining failed 7/21 bomber 24-year-old Osman Hussain (also known as Handi Issac) is awaiting an extradition hearing on Aug. 17 in Italy and is currently been held in Rome’s Regina Coeli Prison.
In a further bit of good news for Scotland Yard, 30-year-old Briton Haroon Rashid Aswat of Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, the same town where 7/7 bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan lived, is on a British plane to London following his deportation from Lusaka in Zambia yesterday.
Zambian Home Affairs Secretary Peter Mumba confirmed yesterday that “Aswat has been deported to Britain. He was put on the plane at 0900 hours local time this morning (Sunday).” Aswat, who was arrested on July 20 at the border town of Livingstone for immigration irregularities, after slipping into Zambia from Zimbabwe two weeks earlier, will be questioned on his arrival in London this morning.
The Bush administration is keen to have him extradited to the US to face charges of alleged involvement in a plot in 1999 to set up an Al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon. Aswat’s family in West Yorkshire strongly denies the charge. They have called on the British government not to extradite him to the US for fear that he might end up in Guantanamo Bay.
