July 21 bombs plot 'just a protest'

Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, the alleged bus bomber who has admitted mixing up the explosive, insisted it was nothing more than a "protest" designed to cause chaos on London's transport network.

He said all five men involved were given an approximate time to detonate their fake bombs, told to stand near the tube doors to escape and ordered to leave nothing to identify them, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

But he could not explain why co-defendant Hussain Osman, the alleged Shepherd's Bush bomber, left his gym membership card in the rucksack with the failed device.

"I cannot explain that," Ibrahim told the jury. "I had no idea he did that, all I can say is that he forgot." Junior prosecution counsel Max Hill replied: "He forgot? Was there much else to think about?"

The trial has already heard how four devices were detonated but failed to explode on three tube trains and a bus after the fifth bomber "lost his nerve".

Mr Hill said Ibrahim and the other defendants had made no plan to escape: "You didn't care, nor did your other defendants," he said. Ibrahim replied: "That's not true."

Mr Hill continued: "You didn't expect to survive, you and all your co-defendants expected to perish in the inferno. That's why it didn't matter in the least whether there were identity documents because they would all go up in flames." Ibrahim repeated: "That's not true."

Ibrahim, of Stoke Newington, north London and Hussain Osman, 28, of no fixed address are among the six defendants charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

The others are Yassin Omar, 26, of New Southgate, north London, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, of North Kensington, west London, Adel Yahya, 24, of High Road, Tottenham, north London and Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, of no fixed address. All six deny the charges against them.