LONDON, 9 August 2005 — Several terrorist suspects accused of attempting to bomb four targets on the London transport system on July 21 appeared before magistrates in London yesterday and were sent for trial at the famous Old Bailey in the first stage of what lawyers say will be a long drawn out legal process.
In another day of fast-moving developments, 30 year-old Haroon Rashid Aswat, who was yesterday deported to the UK from Zambia, was also remanded in custody till Aug. 11 by the same magistrates. Aswat, who grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, the same town of 7/7 suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan, denied any involvement in terrorism as American lawyers applied for his extradition.
Hugo Keith, a lawyer for the US government, said Aswat had been involved in the setting up of a camp in Oregon that had aimed at providing training for American and British men who would then be sent to fight in Afghanistan. He said the camp was established by another man but Aswat and an accomplice arrived later to raise money and establish the camp further.
Three of the five failed 7/21 prime suspects were yesterday remanded in custody after appearing before Bow Street magistrates sitting at a heavily guarded Belmarsh Magistrates Court on four charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, possession of an explosive substance, and conspiracy to cause explosions.
Belmarsh Magistrates Court is Britain’s most secure magistrates court and is located at Belmarsh high security prison in southeast London. Bomb suspects 27-year-old Mukhtar Said Ibrahim, accused of the failed No. 26 bus bombing in Hackney Road; 24-year-old Yassin Hassan Omar, and 23-year-old Ramzi Mohammed, accused of the failed tube train bombings at Warren Street and the Oval, respectively, were charged on the above four counts and will stand trial at the Old Bailey on Nov. 14. They will be joined by the fourth prime suspect Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 32, who was charged with conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions.
He is alleged to have abandoned an unexploded device in bushes in Wormwood Scrubs in west London found two days after the bomb attempts.
The police convoy taking the four suspects from Paddington Green police station in Edgware Road left at 9 a.m. yesterday morning. The fifth suspect, Osman Hussain (also known as Hamdi Issac), accused of the failed Shepherd’s Bush bombing, is awaiting an extradition hearing on Aug. 17 in Italy and is held at the top security Regina Coeli Prison in Rome.
Three other men, Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali, Wharbi Mohammed and Asias Girma, were also remanded in custody yesterday till Aug. 11 by Horseferry Magistrates Court after appearing on lesser charges of assisting Ibrahim in evading arrest and of failing to disclose information about the failed bombers to the police.
Six other people have already appeared over the weekend on similar charges of failing to disclose information about terrorists to the police. They include Shadi Sami Abdel Gadir, 22; Omar Nagmeloin Almagboul, 20; and Mohamed Kabashi, 23, all from Brighton; and Osman Hussain’s common law wife, Yeshiemebet Girma, 28; her sister Mulumebet Girma, 21; and Ismael Abdurahman, 23. They have also been remanded till Aug. 11 when they will appear in Bow Street
Meanwhile, John Denham, a former British Home Office minister, has urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to get a grip with his policy on terrorism, which he said was confused with government departments coming up with half-baked ideas almost on a daily basis.
There has been controversy especially about the proposals by Lord Chancellor Lord Faulkner on Sunday that extremists who condone and glorify terrorism may be charged with treason, a medieval offense older than Parliament itself. The last person to be hanged for treason was William Joyce, the Briton who broadcast propaganda for the Nazis as Lord Haw Haw some 60 years ago.
Suggestions by Home Office Minister Hazel Blears that British Asian Muslims should be rebranded as Asian British to redefine their Britishness have also been scoffed at by critics.
