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3 men deny conspiring with London transit bombers
2009-01-19
LONDON - A prosecutor on Monday accused three British men of scouting out potential targets on behalf of suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters on London's transit system in 2005. The defendants -- Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32 -- are being retried on a charge of conspiring to cause explosions with the bombers who blew themselves up on three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005. Prosecution lawyer Neil Flewitt said in opening statements Monday that the three defendants had "conducted a reconnaissance of potential targets" during a visit to London seven months before the attacks. The three defendants denied the charge, pleading not guilty in front of jurors at London's Kingston Crown Court. The 2005 attacks were the deadliest on London since World War II, killing 52 commuters as well as the four suicide bombers -- Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain. Prosecutors said the three men on trial had traveled with Hussain on Dec. 16, 2004, from their northern English home town of Leeds to London, where they visited tourist sights including the London Eye Ferris wheel, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium. Flewitt said the two-day visit was a reconnaissance trip, "an important first step in what was, by then, a settled plan to cause explosions in the U.K." He said the defendants did not take part directly in the attacks but still helped the bombers prepare "an appalling act of terrorism." Flewitt said the three "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 London bombings." The defendants -- the only people charged over the attacks -- have acknowledged knowing the bombers, but said they were not aware of the bomb plot. They have said the trip to London was a social outing. Ali, Saleem and Shakil also denied a second charge of conspiring to attend a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2007. They are being tried a second time, after the jury at their first trial last year failed to reach a verdict. All three face a maximum life sentence if convicted.
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