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Yorkshire terror camp pair jailed for seven years
TWO men who planned to attend a training camp for terrorists were jailed for seven years each today.
July 7 bombs inquiry: Full coverage
Waheed Ali, 25, Mohammed Shakil, 32, and Sadeer Saleem, 28, were yesterday cleared of helping the July 7 bombers select their targets.
But Ali and Shakil were found guilty of conspiracy to attend a training camp for terrorists after they were arrested before boarding a flight for Pakistan in 2007.
Today Mr Justice Gross sentenced the pair to seven years each at Kingston Crown Court.
Both men have already spent more than two years in custody which will be deducted from the time they will serve.
Both Ali and Shakil had admitted attending terrorist training camps in the past, before it had been made an offence.
Ali, Shakil, and Mr Saleem, all of Beeston, Leeds, were re-tried after an earlier jury failed to reach verdicts.
They were the only people to be charged as a result of the biggest police inquiry in British history.
More than 37,000 exhibits were forensically examined, 4,700 telephones seized and 24,000 people eliminated from inquiries by an army of police and MI5 investigators.
The total cost of the two trials is likely to exceed 5 million.
Families of the July 7 victims say the verdicts mean no one is likely to ever be brought to justice for the attacks on London's transport network. They are demanding a full independent inquiry into the atrocity.
Bereaved families and survivors have also 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.
The three men 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. They also 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.
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 and sightseeing.
The head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command said yesterday that Ali and Shakil shared the same extremist beliefs as the London bombers.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall said: "While those directly responsible for the bombings died in the attacks, we remain convinced that others must have been involved in the planning.
"I, again, would urge anybody who has any information about the July 7 attacks to come forward and contact police."
The key questions campaigners want answered centre on whether the attacks could have been prevented.
They have already highlighted how an earlier report said the bombers were "not named or listed" as potential terrorists.
This statement was made despite the fact that MI5 watched, photographed and recorded the bombers as they met other violent extremists.
The Kingston Crown Court jury was not told Ali was present when Khan and Tanweer held meetings with terrorist Omar Khyam.
The group, including Ali, was photographed meeting at a McDonald's car park and filmed walking down a south London street.
Khyam, referred to as Ausman during the trial, is now serving a life sentence for heading a plot to blow up a nightclub or shopping centre with fertiliser bombs.
Despite their links, MI5 dismissed Khan and his group as "peripheral figures" and never fully investigated their activities, allowing them to slip through the net.
Mr Justice Gross told Ali and Shakil it was an offence "at a serious level".
He said: "Your intention, but for your apprehension, was to attend a real camp and to use real guns in training at that camp.
"This was not play acting and you were determined players, not naive dupes."
He told the pair there was a "very real prospect of reoffending".
The court heard Shakil has health problems, including an anxiety disorder, but while the judge said he had some sympathies for those difficulties, he added: "You have hitherto always managed to surmount such difficulties when it came to actually attending training camps."
Mr Justice Gross said the most important factor in his sentencing decision was to deter others attending such training camps.
The trial had heard about 1,000 young Muslims from the United Kingdom visited training camps in Pakistan between 1998 and 2003.
The judge said: "It must be made entirely clear, if necessary through sentences of an appropriate length, that such conduct is unacceptable."
He told Ali and Shakil they could not take the benefit of living in this country and then associate with those conspiring to kill British forces.
He added: "There can be no 'a la carte' citizenship."
Mr Justice Gross said: "By seeking to attend such a camp you betrayed a country that has given you and your family a home. That loyalty has been sadly lacking."
The court heard neither man was born in the United Kingdom but both moved to the country as small children.
The judge said there was "overwhelming evidence" which led to the pair being convicted. They had bought kit for their trip, planned to use false names and concocted a cover story that they were simply going on holiday.
Such a story was "fanciful", the judge added.
Referring to the acquittal of Ali, Shakil and Saleem on the separate charge of conspiracy to cause explosions, Mr Justice Gross said the jury's decision must be respected.
He said: "Defendants must receive a fair trial and must not be convicted unless the jury has been made sure of their guilt.
"That is a strength of our system. By its verdict, the jury in this case indicated the Crown had not made it sure the defendants were party to the conspiracy to cause explosions that ended in the July 7 bombings.
"That verdict is to be respected."
He said the verdict did not "diminish the horror of July 7, the sympathy for the dead and their families, and the anger towards those who perpetrated the outrage".
The judge added that the not guilty verdict did not reflect badly on the police investigation into the bombings, and said: "No criticism has been made of that investigation."
Family members and friends of some of the July 7 victims were in court to hear the judge pass sentence.
They were joined by 11 members of the jury who convicted Ali and Shakil.
Hazel Webb, whose daughter Laura, 29, was killed at Edgware Road, expressed her dismay following the sentencing.
The personal assistant from Islington, north London, died in the explosion triggered by suicide bomber Mohammed Siddique Khan.
"All I can say is I am extremely disappointed that they didn't get the maximum sentence which could have been imposed," Mrs Webb said.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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