Four terrorists convicted of the July 21 bombing plot will each serve at least 40 years in prison after being jailed for life yesterday.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussein Osman, 28, showed little reaction when sentenced for trying to kill Tube and bus passengers in London.

At Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London, the judge said that their “murderous enterprise” had been “founded on simple hatred by a tiny minority of our way of life and our civi-lisation”. He refused to differentiate between the ringleaders and followers, passing the minimum 40-year tariff on all four for conspiracy to murder.

Mr Justice Fulford said: “It seems to me they all furthered the objectives of this plan with their eyes wide open. They were fully committed to what was going to happen. This was a long-term plot in which they all participated. This was a viable — and very nearly successful — attempt at mass murder. Coming soon after July 7 it was designed for maximum impact.”

The failed suicide bombers tried to blow up three Tube trains and a bus with devices made of hydrogen peroxide and chapati flour in July 2005. When detonated, the bombs failed to explode properly. The men were tackled by passengers but managed to escape. At least 50 people would have died, the judge said, and the lives of thousands would have been destroyed. The July 7 attacks two weeks earlier were of “considerable relevance” because the attackers would have known what to expect. He said: “The family and friends of the dead and the injured, the thousands captured underground in terrifying circumstances — the smoke, the screams of the wounded and the dying — this each defendant knew. They planned this. After 7/7 each defendant knew exactly what the result would be.”

In court for the sentencing were two men singled out by the judge for their courage. Angus Campbell, a fire-fighter, led a woman and her baby to safety before confronting Mohammed. Arthur Burton-Garbett, 72, “pursued Mohammed through Oval station and up the escalator with determination and fearlessness, to say nothing of impressive speed”.

Mr Justice Fulford said that al-Qaeda was behind the attacks and it was no coincidence that the ringleader, Ibrahim, was in Pakistan at the same time as two of the July 7 bombers.

The judge said that the men had corrupted the tenets of Islam, a civilised and peaceful religion. Osman clutched a copy of the Koran in the dock, Ibrahim shook his head slightly when sent down. Mohammed looked downcast and Omar remained impassive.

In mitigation, some of the defendants said that they were angered by the Iraq war. But the judge pointed out that Ibrahim had had terrorist training in Sudan before the start of the war. He added that some defendants “cynically played the Iraq card in the hope of finding sympathy and purchase with members of the jury”.

The jury failed to reach a verdict against Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Adel Yahya. Both will be retried.

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