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Two Islamic preachers recruited, groomed and corrupted young Muslims, taking them to camps across Britain where they trained with members of the failed July 21, 2005, bomb plot, a court was told yesterday.
Attila Ahmet, the ringleader of the alleged group, admitted encouraging others to commit murder, Woolwich Crown Court was told. Mohammed Hamid, his alleged co-conspirator, who allegedly told police his name was “Osama bin London”, is accused of overseeing a two-year radicalisation programme to prepare a London-based network of Muslim youths for jihad.
Mr Hamid, 50, who was said to have referred to the 52 deaths in the July 7 terrorist attacks as “not even breakfast for me”, appeared with four others. He also allegedly spoke of “six or seven atrocities” before the London 2012 Olympics and was said to praise “the magnificent” September 11 hijackers.
Among those who attended the weekend training camps and Friday- night meetings at the East London home of Mr Hamid were the four men convicted of the failed July 21 plot, which aimed to kill passengers on Tube and bus networks in London.
The court was told that the defendants joined two of the plotters, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussein Osman, on a paintballing trip to Tonbridge, Kent, weeks before the terror cell tried to blow up passengers at Warren Street, Oval, Shepherds Bush and Shoreditch.
David Farrell, QC, for the prosecution, said: “Hamid and Ahmet used the meetings as a grooming mechanism for disaffected Muslim men, slowly and sometimes subtly, preparing them and radicalising them for jihad and encouraging them to murder non-believers.” The prosecution claimed that a recording, secretly made by the police, shows Mr Hamid clearly encouraging murder. In one conversation the preacher is allegedly heard telling an unnamed associate: “We know you have the bottle. You know what happened on the Tube? Four people got shaheed [martyrdom]. How many people did it take out?”
The man replies: “Fifty-two.”
Mr Hamid allegedly says: “Fifty-two. That’s not even breakfast for me.”
Mr Hamid, of Clapton, London, Mousa Brown, 41, of Walthamstow, East London, Kibley da Costa, 24, of West Norwood, southeast London, Mohammed al-Figari, 42, of Tottenham, North London, and Kader Ahmed, 20, of Plaistow, East London, deny a number of terrorism charges.
Ahmet, 43, the alleged right-hand man of Mr Hamid and leader of their “inner circle”, pleaded guilty to three counts of soliciting murder.
They are the first people to be brought to trial under the Terrorism Act 2006, which makes it a criminal offence to glorify terrorism or to receive terrorist training.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Hamid, with Ahmet as his accomplice, groomed and corrupted young men whom he met at his stall in Marble Arch, West London.
Mr Farrell told the jury that the preacher, who used the alias Al Quran, would invite some of those he met to his home, later taking them to training camps. Surveillance footage taken by the police allegedly shows them practising firing imaginary weapons with sticks, learning to “leopard- crawl” and pole-vaulting over streams. Their behaviour at the Lake District camp, the court heard, led the farmer who owned the land to nickname his regular visitors as “my Taleban”.
Mr Farrell said: “A number of young men who attended camps organised by Hamid were involved in attempts to kill and seriously injure passengers on the London transport network on July 21, 2005.”
Mobile phone records allegedly show that Mr Hamid was in regular contact with the July 21 plotters, texting them the day before their rucksack bombs failed to detonate. The jury was told that there was no evidence connecting the men to the terrorist attacks on July 7, 2005.
The trial continues.
The charges
Mohammed Hamid, 50, of Clapton, East London, is accused of providing weapons and terrorist training between April and March 2006. He is charged with soliciting murder and possessing terrorist documents.
Mousa Brown, 41, of Walthamstow, East London, is also accused of providing weapons training between April 2004 and March 2006.
Kibley da Costa, 24, of West Norwood, southeast London, is accused of providing terrorist training and attending terrorist training camps
Mohammed Al-Figari, 42, of Tottenham, North London, is accused of attending terrorist training camps.
Kader Ahmed, 20, of Plaistow, East London, is accused of attending terrorist training camps.
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