By KUNA
London : Three men helped the July 7 bombers prepare for their attack on the London transport system with a two-day reconnaissance mission of the British capital’s tourist attractions, a court was told Thursday.
Waheed Ali, 24, Sadeer Saleem, 27 and Mohammed Shakil, 31, all deny one charge of conspiring with Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain and others unknown to cause explosions between November 17 2004 and July 8 2005.
The four suicide bombers murdered 52 people when they set off bombs on the London transport network on July 7, 2005 Prosecuting lawyer Neil Flewitt told a jury at Kingston Crown Court, south London, today, that the three defendants did not make or transport the bombs but they did help the bombers “in one particular and important aspect of their preparation for the London bombings”.
The trio travelled from Leeds, in northern England, to London with Hasib Hussain, who went on to detonate his bomb on a bus in Tavistock Square, central London.
There they met Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train.
In London they visited a series of locations which, said Flewitt, bore a “striking similarity” to the locations where the bombs were detonated on July 7, 2005.
Flewitt said Saleem and Shakil visited the Natural History Museum, the London Eye ferris wheel and the London Aquarium.
He told the jury that all three defendants accept they made the trip, but deny they had anything to do with the London bombings.
The prosecutor said he would be taking the jury through the events leading up to the London bombings.
He said that the bombs were manufactured in Yorkshire, northern England, and then transported to London and the bombers were captured on CCTV footage, some of which the jury will be shown later today, along the route.
The trial continues.