THE key suspect for the attempted suicide bombing at Shepherds Bush has claimed that the device in his rucksack was nothing more than a flour bomb.

Hussain Osman, who escaped from Britain on a Eurostar train and was arrested last week in Rome, has told his Italian lawyer that he had no intention of killing anyone.

Antonietta Sonnessa, who says that she will fight attempts to extradite her client back to Britain, claimed that her client intended to make “a demonstrative gesture”.

She said: “What he said is that there were harmless materials, that is, flour. And then there was [the detonator] to make it explode — but only to create a bang.

“That’s what my client said. Now I don’t know how it was made. That I can’t say.”

The claims by Mr Osman, who has told the Italian authorities that his real name is Hamdi Isaac, have been dismissed by Scotland Yard.

Police chiefs in Britain say the devices made by the would-be bombers on July 21 would have caused carnage on three Tube trains and a bus in East London but for one mistake in their configuration.

An Italian judge will today set a date for the first hearing on Britain’s request for the extradition of Mr Osman, who had been living in Stockwell, South London, with his partner and three children.

Mr Osman, an Ethiopian who used false Somali documents to claim asylum in Britain, is believed to have converted his partner and some members of her family to Islam.

The “final documents” completing Britain’s extradition request have been delivered to the Italian authorities, and Domenico Massimo Miceli, the judge in charge of the extradition proceedings, is expected to hold the hearing at the end of this month or early next month.

The British Embassy in Rome said it believed that Mr Osman would be returned to London by December and denied being concerned that Italian investigations and legal procedures were slowing the extradition process.

“All requests made by the UK authorities have been acted on promptly by their Italian counterparts,” an embassy spokesman said.

Mr Osman also faces separate accusations in Italy over alleged involvement in international terrorism and possession of false documents and it is not clear how they will be dealt with. Italian police are also investigating the activities of two of Mr Osman’s brothers, Fati and Remzi Isaac, in Rome and Brescia.

But Pietro Saviotti, one of the two investigating magistrates leading the Italian inquiry, said the inquiry would not block extradition, and the British and Italian legal processes were perfectly compatible.

“For the moment I see the needs of the judicial system in Britain, where the crimes committed are the most serious, as being dominant,” Signor Saviotti said.

“If more specific criminal associations in Italy were to emerge we would deal with them at that point.”

Only Italian prosecutors have so far had access to Mr Osman in Rome’s Regina Coeli prison. But the Interior Ministry insisted that there was “maximum collaboration” between the British and Italian police, and said Scotland Yard had the right to ask its Italian colleagues to question Mr Osman by submitting questions in writing through a “rogatory letter”.

Corriere della Sera yesterday carried a detailed account of Mr Osman’s most recent statements to his lawyer, in which he claimed that he was “afraid” to return to Britain “because of what might happen to me in prison”. He was quoted as pleading with Signora Sonnessa to “do anything you can to let me stay in Italy”.

He said he had “never killed anyone” and had “never even dreamt of carrying out a suicide bombing attack. I love life, I’ve never thought of dying, the very idea terrorises me”. He said his rucksack had contained only “a detonator — the rest was flour. I was supposed to frighten people, that’s all.”

He added: “I made a mistake, and if I could turn the clock back I would not do it again.” The paper said, however, that the British police did not believe him “and the Italian police don’t believe him either”.

A report to Parliament yesterday by the Italian intelligence services said the London attacks were an “alarm signal” for the rest of Europe, including Italy, which was at risk in particular from “Islamic fighters from Iraq”.

www.timesonline.co.uk/londonbombs
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