Three men helped the July 7 bombers prepare for their attack on the London transport system with a two-day reconnaissance mission of the capital's tourist attractions, a court was told today.
Waheed Ali, 24, from Tower Hamlets, east London; Sadeer Saleem, 27 and Mohammed Shakil, 31, both from Beeston, Leeds; all deny one charge of conspiring with Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain and others unknown to cause explosions between November 17 2004 and July 8 2005.
The four suicide bombers murdered 52 people when they set off bombs on the capital's transport network in 2005.
Neil Flewitt QC told a jury at Kingston Crown Court today that the three defendants did not make or transport the bombs but they did help the bombed "in one particular and important aspect of their preparation for the London bombings."
The trio travelled from Leeds to London with Hasib Hussain, who went on to detonate his bomb on the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square, in December 2004.
There they met Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train.
In the capital they visited a series of locations which, said Mr Flewitt, bore a "striking similarity" to the locations where the bombs were detonated on July 7 the following year.
Mr Flewitt said: "It is the prosecution case that the locations visited by the defendants on the 16th to 17th December 2004 bore a striking similarity not only to the locations visited on June 28 2005 by three of the London bombers, Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer and Jermaine Lindsay, when they carried out another "hostile reconnaissance of possible targets but also to the locations at which the bombs were actually detonated less than two weeks later on July 7 2005."
Saleem and Shakil visited the Natural History Museum, the London Eye and the London Aquarium.
He told the jury that all three defendants accept they made the trip, but deny they had anything to do with the London bombings.
"Rather it is their case that the purpose of their journey was to enable Waheed Ali to visit his sister in east London. Further Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil accept that they visited the Natural History Museum, the London Eye and the London Aquarium but maintain they did so for purely social reasons."
The defendants also accept that they knew the London bombers, said Mr Flewitt. But he said: "It is their case that their friendship was entirely innocent and that they know nothing of and took no part in their plan to cause the explosions in the UK."
He told the jury that he would be taking them through the events leading up to the London bombings.
He said that the bombs were manufactured in Yorkshire and then transported to London and the bombers were captured on CCTV footage, some of which the jury will be shown later today, along the route.
Four days before the attacks Shezhad Tanweer hired a sky blue Nissan Micra from First 24 Hour Car Ltd in Leeds. At 4am on July 7 Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain drove from Leeds to Luton railway station where they met up with Jermaine Lindsay.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article