Five African men found guilty of failed London bomb plot

 

Almost two years after the failed attempts to detonate rucksack bombs on the London tube and a bus on 21 July 2005, Muktar Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussain Osman, 28, were convicted of conspiracy to murder at Woolwich Crown Court. All four were jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 40 years in prison. In November 2007, 34-year-old Sumaila Abubakhari, who assumed the identity of Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, dubbed the “fifth bomber” was also jailed for 33 years after admitting conspiracy to cause explosions. The judge recommended that Asiedu be deported back to Ghana, his home country, after completing his sentence.

Muktar Said Ibrahim was known as the head of the operation. Born in Asmara in Eritrea in 1978, he moved to the UK in 1990 and managed to gain British citizenship. He has a history of engagement in criminal activity including indecent assault and robbery. He also spent years in Feltham Young Offender’s Institute for his role in an attack. Despite attempting to get his life back on track after being released from the Institute, he soon became acutely interested and involved in Muslim politics. He left Britain for Sudan in 2003 where he claimed that he received jihadi training. Ibrahim was the failed bomber on the Shoreditch bus. He was subsequently arrested on 29 July 2005 along with his co-conspirator, Ramzi Mohammed.

25-year-old Ramzi Mohammed was responsible for the bomb at Oval tube station. His bomb, along with the other bombs on the underground, fired the detonator caps but failed to go off themselves. He then proceeded to flee the station, returning to his flat where he remained until police discovered him. Born in Somalia, the father of two arrived in the UK in 1998 and was initially placed in a care home. It was in the UK that he became more interested in political Islam and eventually began attending sermons by the preacher, Abu Hamza at the Finsbury Park mosque. Mohammed left a suicide note for his family in which he wrote: "My family, don't cry for [me]. But instead rejoice in happiness and love. What I have done [is] for the sake of Allah for he loves those who fight in his sake… Be good Muslims ... and you shall see me again in paradise, God willing."

The north London flat of Yassin Omar, also born in Somalia, was discovered to be the bomb factory for the group. Over 400 litres of hair bleach were used and chemically altered to become bombs. Yassin was the failed Warren street bomber who disguised himself in a burka as he attempted to escape the scene. He arrived in the UK with his sisters in the early 1990s and spent much of childhood in care before being fostered. In 2000, Omar began to engage with Islam. He began to reject western clothing and vocalized his support for the Taliban. He believed that the North American aggression against Islam and the murder of innocent people and families justified a retaliatory war against the west.

Ethiopian born Hussain Osman also known as Hamdi Issac Adus came to Britain in 1996. He is the least known of the bombers and it is not known how he became involved with Islamic fundamentalism, or how met with his fellow plotters. He lived with his wife and children in Stockwell, south London. After failing to detonate the bomb on the tube between Latimer Road and Shepherd’s Bush, he fled the scene and eventually managed to leave the country for Rome. He was arrested less than two weeks later after police managed to track his movements via his mobile phone. Osman claimed that the attempted bombing was a mere hoax designed to draw attention to the unjust invasion of Iraq and the subsequent murder of thousands of Iraqi people. During the trial, both Osman and Manfo Kwaku Asiedu claimed they had been bullied into the scheme by Muktar Ibrahim.

Asiedu claimed he did not want to blow himself up but felt compelled to follow the orders of Ibrahim. He said: “I didn't know them and I was scared [for] my life and at that point [I thought] I just have to go on and do what they told me to do so that I can get out of that place”. Asiedu ultimately abandoned the device he was carrying which was later discovered by a park keeper in a west London park. He claimed that he was only told about the plan to become a suicide bomber on the morning of the attempted attacks and felt compelled to go through with it for fear that the others would kill him if he did not. After abandoning his bomb, he voluntarily handed himself into a police station. The jury at his initial trial at Woolwich Crown Court earlier in the year was unable to reach a verdict and a date was set for his retrial. The charge of conspiracy to murder was dropped but Asiedu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions.