Asian Image : Calls for answers as three are cleared of terror plot

Calls for answers as three are cleared of terror plot

April 28, 2009

Relatives of those killed on July 7 2005 demanded answers as three men were cleared of helping the bombers plan the attacks.

Campaigners said the verdicts mean no one has ever been brought to justice for the attacks on London’s transport network.

They said it strengthened their case for a full independent inquiry into the deadly London terrorist attack.

Bereaved families and survivors 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.

Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was killed in the Edgware Road Tube explosion, said now is the time for a public inquiry.

He said: “For almost four years we have been asking for an inquiry into what led up to 7/7.

”We are not looking for people to blame, but we also know that we have not been told the whole truth.

”We believe that crucial lessons need to be learned. If mistakes have been made, they should be put right, not covered up. This is not a witch hunt, it is simply about saving lives.”

A jury at Kingston Crown Court today cleared three men of helping the July 7 bombers plan their attacks by carrying out a reconnaissance mission in London.

But two of the men, Waheed Ali and Mohammed Shakil, were convicted of a second charge of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training.

Ali, 25, Shakil, 32, and Sadeer Saleem, 28, all from Beeston, Leeds, were re-tried after an earlier jury failed to reach verdicts.

They 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 Mohammed Siddique 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 December 16 2004 with Hussain, who went on to detonate his bomb on the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square, claiming 13 lives.

There they met Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train.

The prosecution alleged they conducted a “hostile reconnaissance” of potential targets during a two-day visit, claiming it was “an important first step in what was, by then, a settled plan to cause explosions in the UK”.

Detailed cell site analysis of mobile phone use, including calls to the London Tourist Board and various attractions, allowed the group’s movements across London to be mapped.

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.

They said they had used the opportunity to see some of the capital’s landmarks at the same time.