7/7 bombing retrial likely after jury discharged

A jury trying three men accused of helping the July 7 bombers was dismissed yesterday after failing to reach a verdict after nearly three weeks of deliberations.

Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32 - the first and only people to be tried in connection with the explosions on London's transport network that killed 52 people in 2005 - are likely to face a retrial over the allegation that they undertook a "hostile reconnaissance mission" in the capital to explore potential targets seven months earlier.

It is claimed they were joined by the eventual suicide bombers, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay, on the two-day trip in December 2004, during which they went to the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium, and, the prosecution claimed, visited areas which bore a "striking similarity" to those where the bombs would be detonated the next year.

Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay injured nearly a 1,000 people when they exploded devices they carried in rucksacks on to three underground trains and a bus near King's Cross, north London.

It was alleged during the three-month trial that the defendants' trip was "an essential preparatory step in the plan to bring death and destruction to the heart of the UK". But the trio, who admitted they knew the bombers from attending the same mosques and gyms as they grew up in the tight-knit Asian community of Beeston, Leeds, insisted their outing was an innocent "social outing" planned so Ali could visit his sister and offering the others the opportunity for some sightseeing.

The jury at Kingston crown court were in their 15th day of deliberations when they sent a note to the judge saying they were deadlocked. Mr Justice Gross had told them on Monday that he would accept a majority verdict.

The men, who deny conspiracy to cause explosions, were remanded in custody. Paul Taylor, prosecuting, said that the Crown would take "a little time" to consider if it would seek a retrial.

During the trial the defendants, who admitted undertaking jihadi training in Pakistan, made no secret of their support for the defence of Muslim lands. But they denounced suicide bombings as un-Islamic and denied any knowledge of the July 7 plot. The men said they never went on the underground and had driven around London, frequently getting lost. Ali argued that if the group had been scouting for targets they would not have used their own mobile phones and car.

The court was told that Shakil drove Ali, Saleem and Hussain from Leeds to London on the morning of December 16. The men said Ali visited his sister in the East End while the others went to the Natural History Museum. The group met Lindsay in the evening and they stayed overnight in a hostel. Linsday left the next morning, leaving the remaining men to go on the Eye and to the Aquarium before heading home via Birmingham in the afternoon.

A hat carrying traces of Ali's DNA and an asthma inhaler and a pair of bloodstained martial arts trousers with Saleem's DNA on them were found at the main bomb factory in Alexandra Grove, Leeds, along with a key for Shakil's Mitsubishi car.

Ali's fingerprint was on a chest of drawers at a bedsit used by the bombers in Chapeltown Road.

Saleem told the court Khan, also an asthmatic, had borrowed his inhaler and trousers and had forgotten to return them. Ali insisted Tanweer had borrowed his hat months before the attacks and Shakil told how Hussain had a spare key to his car.

The trio's links with the bombers went back years. Shakil had known Khan since they were both taken on as youth workers in the basement of Beeston's Hardy Street mosque in 1996. A 14-year-old Saleem had first come across Khan at a youth club. Ali and Tanweer were childhood best friends who played cricket together the night before the attacks. Ali, Saleem, Khan and Tanweer would all become trustees at the nearby Iqra Islamic bookshop.

Ali admitted attending a training camp in the Kashmiri mountains with Khan in the summer of 2001 and in 2003 Shakil trained alongside Khan in Pakistan, using light machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 assault rifles.

The jury also saw footage of Ali with Khan and Tanweer meeting a "committed terrorist" known as Ausman early in 2004. On Boxing Day that year, after the trip to London, Ali and Saleem flew to Pakistan to attend a training camp. They met up with Khan and Tanweer and said they were told the two men would be returning to the UK to do "a couple of things for the brothers". But they claimed they had no idea what Khan and the gang were planning.

Survivors and relatives of those killed said they feared inquests would be delayed. A report by the Intelligence and Security Committee due to be published next month may also be held up.