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Three men 'posed as London tourists to help 7/7 bombers'
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent10 Apr 2008
Key members of the 7/7 suicide bomb gang posed as tourists during a reconnaisance mission in London, a court heard today.
Between inspections of potential targets they rode on the London Eye and visited the Natural History Museum and London Aquarium, the jury was told.
Bomber Hasib Hussain and three henchmen came to the capital from Leeds seven months before the attacks which killed 52 Tube and bus passengers and injured more than 900.
In London, they teamed up with Jermaine Lindsay, the second of the bombers who caused such devastation in July 2005. Prosectutors claim the trip was to scout out potential targets.
The first visit to the capital mirrored another reconnaisance mission carried out by the four bombers alone two weeks before the attacks. They were to detonate devices on a bus in Tavistock Square and Tube trains at King's Cross, Aldgate and Edgware Road.
At Kingston crown court today British Muslims Waheed Ali, 24, from Tower Hamlets, Sadeer Saleem, 27, and Mohammed Shakil, 31, both from Beeston in Leeds, denied conspiring for 18 months with the four bombers to cause explosions.
Neil Flewitt QC, prosecuting, opened the trial by saying the three defendants had assisted the bombers "to prepare for these devastating events".
"They were not directly involved in the London bombings in the sense that they were responsible for making or transporting the bombs that were detonated with such devastating consequences," he added.
"However they associated with and shared the beliefs and objectives of the London bombers and so were willing to assist them in one particular and important aspect of their preparation for the bombings."
Mr Flewitt described the "hostile reconnaisance" by the three in December 2004. "They travelled from Leeds with one of the bombers, Hasib Hussain, to London where over a period of two days they conducted a reconnaisance of potential targets," he said.
"While they were in London they met and spent time with another of the bombers, Jermaine Lindsay."
The defendants all admit coming to London at that time. But Mr Flewitt added "they all deny the trip had anything-to do with the London bombings. Rather it is their case that the purpose of their journey was to enable Ali to visit his sister in east London.
"What is more, although they all accept that they knew the London bombers, it is their case that their friendship was entirely innocent and that they knew nothing of and took no part in the plan to cause explosions in the UK."
Mr Flewitt also showed CCTV footage of Hussain cooly buying a battery form the King's Cross WH Smith minutes before he detonated his bomb.
The video shows him rummaging in his rucksack after appearing to suffer technical difficulties with the homemade device 30 minutes before he detonated it on the upper deck of a number 30 bus, killing himself and 13 others.
Jurors also saw previously unseen footage of passengers boarding a Circle Line train at Aldgate and seconds later a cloud of dust and smoke enveloping the platform.
The case continues.
