London News and Reviews

21/7 bomb plot 'was a hoax to stop Iraq war'

Hussain Osman

One of the July 21 bomb suspects claimed the plot was a hoax which aimed to stop military action in Iraq, a court heard.

Hussain Osman, 28, told police after his arrest that he thought he was carrying fake explosives in a rucksack.

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He said he discovered they were real only after the attack.

The plan was to alert the public to the violence being carried out by the British and Americans, who were 'responsible for killing innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere', he said.

It was also to encourage Muslims and non-Muslims to 'come out and march to put a stop to the war'.

'What happened on 7/7 in London is happening in Iraq every day. They are both innocent people, both are wrong,' he said.

Osman fled to Italy after trying to detonate the device on an Underground train at Shepherd's Bush in West London.

He was arrested in Rome on July 29 and interviewed for two days.

He told the investigating magistrate that the plot had been hatched with the other alleged accomplices in the three weeks after the July 7 bombings.

'We discussed many things that were happening in Iraq and UK,' he said.

'Friends had told us that some Muslim women were being beaten up by British citizens.

'We decided we had to do something serious here, some demonstration.

'We said, "let's do a hoax to put things back for Muslims".'

They made up fake explosives from plastic, flour and liquid, ingredients which Osman carried to the alleged bomb-making factory in North Kensington, West London, for them to be mixed together the night before the attack.

The aim was to leave the device in a bag on a London Underground train where somebody would see it, he said.

Asked why each 'bomb' had shrapnel of screws and washers taped to the outside if they were meant to be fake, he replied: 'To make the things what we did look like it was serious and kill too.

'When fake bombs are found they are recognised as such so the idea was to make them look serious so they will take them seriously. I didn't want to kill anyone.'

He said the group did not have a name and no plans to meet after the attack.

'As they told me it wasn't real, there was no point,' said Osman. 'We didn't talk about what we had to do afterwards.

'I didn't think I would die. I don't know if they did.'

Osman also revealed how he set off the detonator on the device on a Hammersmith and City Line train by touching a wire coming from the rucksack to a battery in his pocket.

He said: 'It was like a firecracker. They were scared and someone came up to me and said "Are you OK?"'

Although the detonators worked, the prosecution say it was 'simply good fortune' that the bombs did not explode.

Questioned by Italian police, Ethiopian-born Osman also admitted he had lied about being Somalian when he came to Britain because they were not accepting any Ethiopians into the country.

He said he had claimed benefits as well as 'moonlighted' for extra money with cleaning jobs.

Osman, who was living in Stockwell, South London, is one of six defendants who deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

The case at Woolwich Crown Court continues.

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