Terrorist Trial London Bombings

There is a second trial happening in London, for three men Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all of Beeston, Leeds. The first trial ended with a hung jury. These three men are charged with “consipiracy to cause an explosion.” The jury had been told that Ali, Saleem, and Shakil, visited a series of locations on December 16 and 17, 2004, which bore a "striking similarity" to where the bombs were detonated on July 7 the following year.

Suicide bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay detonated rucksack devices packed with explosives on three tube trains and a bus killing 52 people (including my daughter, Shelley), and injuring up to a thousand more.

The trial heard that the three defendants travelled from Leeds to London with Hussain, who later detonated his bomb on the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square claiming 13 lives.

There they also met Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train, and the group stayed overnight in a hostel. The prosecution alleged that the trip was "an essential preparatory step in the plan to bring death and destruction to the heart of the UK".
The jury in the second trial, retired to consider the information on April 18th. We are all waiting with baited breath, for their decision.

It is an agonising process for those bereaved families, and those who survived the bombings. A “hung jury”, is perhaps the worst outcome possible. If these men, were involved in any way, then they should be held accountable. If they are not, that should be the end of it.
The impact of the trial is manyfold, in that the inquests into the deaths cannot proceed until the trial is completed, which includes the jury being able to make a decision.

It also puts on hold, calls for an inquiry in the 7/7 bombings and the actions or inactions of the Security Services. The reason for this is that some information is said to be sub judice.
There has been a tremendous amount of work undertaken by members of the 7/7 Inquiry Group made up of survivors and families of the bereaved.

I do not know if these men are guilty or not. I do know that there are some serious flaws in the actions/inactions of those groups charged with monitoring the potential threat to Londoners.
It is well documented that the 7/7 bombers where not in fact “clean skins” as first claimed by the powers that be. In fact there was video survelliance of them long before 7/7. Taped conversations and observations which, you would think, should have raised a few alarm bells.
The drive and determination to get some answers, is from a place of ensuring that no such errors, if that is what they are, occur again. That the separate groups monitoring persons perceived to be threats, communicate with each other; that pre-emptive actions be taken.
That no other persons have to go through what the bereaved families and survivors have gone through – especially if it could have been prevented.

UPDATE: April 28, 2009: The jury is back and all three were acquited of the main charges “conspiracy to cause an explostion. Two Ali and Shakil, were however, convicted of conspiracty to attend a place used for terrorist training. They were about to board a flight to Pakistan when they were arrested in 2007.

So four years on, two trials later and the result is in. There will be no more trials in relation to the 7/7 bombings.

I am not sure what I think as a result of all this, The police must have been confident to undertake a second trial, at such huge expense in money terms and resources. They may have hoped for a more certain outcome, though it seems lots of the evidence is circumstantial. On reading some of it, as a lay person, there is still sufficient doubt in my mind about the reasons they went to the places they did, the association they had with the bombers, that I am not fully convinced their intentions were innocent. However, that is that.

It is not unreasonable for me to say, that I am at least glad the terrorists who detonated the bombs, killed themselves. That is what they wanted to do so I guess they are satisfied.
I will wait for my thoughts to settle before adding any more.

Arohanui
KG
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