7/7 families attack US release of bomb tutor

Mohammed Junaid Babar, 35, was released last December after serving just four-and-a-half years of a potential 70-year sentence.

The father-of-one, who has renounced violence and radicalism, met July 7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan at Islamabad airport in 2003 and took him to a militant training camp he had established.

But he won his freedom after providing information to counter-terrorism officials on both sides of the Atlantic including an “A to Z” of al-Qaida suspects.

His testimony helped secure the conviction of British Islamists, including those accused of plotting to blow up Bluewater and the Ministry of Sound nightclub.

Clifford Tibber, a lawyer representing the victims’ families and survivors at the July 7 inquest, branded the move “crazy”. He said some relatives of those who died in the London bombings were “livid”.

Mr Tibber added: “When somebody does co-operate that is part and parcel of the bargain to be struck. But that bargain must take into account the views of victims. There is no way a reduction of this size has any regard to the feelings of victims.”

Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was killed by Khan in the Edgware Road blast, said: “He was directly responsible for the deaths of dozens and dozens of people and four-and-a-half years is totally inadequate. If you look at our system, for example, you get more than that for some motoring offences.

“Certainly you can get more than that for burglary without injuring a single person. So to be responsible for the deaths of 52 people, serve four-and-a-half years and be released and to say that means he has paid his debt to society just beggars belief.”

News of Babar’s release was mentioned yesterday at the inquest into the deaths of the 52 victims of the suicide bomb attacks on the London transport network.