Two 7/7 suspects convicted of terror training plan

Waheed Ali and Mohammed Shakil planned to go to Pakistan to train as terrorists

29 April 2009

TWO of the cleared suspects in the 7/7 conspiracy trial have been jailed for seven years for planning to attend a terrorist training camp.

Waheed Ali, 25, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, were cleared along with 28-year-old Sadeer Saleem of carrying out reconnaissance missions for the 7/7 bombers.

But Ali and Shakil were found guilty of conspiracy to attend a training camp for terrorists after they were arrested before boarding a flight for Pakistan in 2007.

Today at Kingston Crown Court, Mr Justice Gross sentenced the pair to seven years each in jail.

Both men have already spent more than two years in custody which will be deducted from the time they will serve.

Ali and Shakil had admitted attending terrorist training camps in the past, before it had been made an offence.

Ali, Shakil, and Saleem, all of Beeston, Leeds, were re-tried after an earlier jury failed to reach verdicts.

They were the only people to be charged as a result of the biggest police inquiry in British history.

More than 37,000 exhibits were forensically examined, 4,700 telephones seized and 24,000 people eliminated from inquiries by an army of police and MI5 investigators.

The total cost of the two trials is likely to exceed £5m.

Families of the 7/7 victims say the verdicts mean no one is likely to be brought to justice for the attacks on London's transport network. They are demanding a full independent inquiry into the atrocity.

Bereaved families and survivors have also called on the Government to publish a second Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report into the bombings without delay.

And they said inquests into the deaths of all 52 victims, plus the four suicide bombers, should be held in public as soon as possible.

The three men were accused of visiting the London Eye, Natural History Museum and London Aquarium to identify potential targets seven months before the 2005 atrocity.

Suicide bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Germaine Lindsay detonated rucksack devices packed with explosives on three Tube trains and a bus.

The trial heard that the three defendants travelled from Leeds to London on 16 December 2004 with Hussain, who went on to detonate his bomb on the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square, claiming 13 lives. They also met Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly line underground train.

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The prosecution alleged they conducted a "hostile reconnaissance" of potential targets during a two-day visit.

The three defendants admitted making the visit but claimed it was an entirely innocent social outing and the purpose was for Ali to visit his sister and sightseeing.

The head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command said yesterday that Ali and Shakil shared the same extremist beliefs as the London bombers.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall said: "While those directly responsible for the bombings died in the attacks, we remain convinced that others must have been involved in the planning.

"I, again, would urge anybody who has any information about the 7 July attacks to come forward and contact police."

The key questions campaigners want answered centre on whether the attacks could have been prevented.

They have already highlighted how an earlier report said the bombers were "not named or listed" as potential terrorists.

This statement was made despite the fact that MI5 watched, photographed and recorded the bombers as they met other violent extremists.

The Kingston Crown Court jury was not told Ali was present when Khan and Tanweer held meetings with terrorist Omar Khyam.

The group, including Ali, was photographed meeting at a McDonald's car park and filmed walking down a south London street.

Khyam, referred to as Ausman during the trial, is serving a life sentence for heading a plot to blow up a nightclub or shopping centre with fertiliser bombs.

Despite their links, Khan and his group were dismissed by MI5 as "peripheral figures" and their activities were never fully investigated, allowing them to slip through the net.

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