A student was jailed for six years and nine months yesterday for his role in helping a cell of would-be suicide bombers to plan the 21/7 attacks.

Adel Yahya, 24, pleaded guilty to collecting information of use to terrorists. He had been tried earlier this year on charges of conspiracy to murder along with four men who attempted to blow themselves up on the London transport network on July 21, 2005, two weeks after 52 people were killed in the July 7 bombings.

A jury failed to reach a verdict on his case and Yahya was scheduled to face a retrial next week until he pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Yahya told his original trial that he knew nothing about a bomb plot, but Mr Justice Calvert Smith said that had now been exposed as “a pack of lies”. The judge said: “You knew that the plan contemplated the use of concentrated liquid hydrogen peroxide as a key explosive component.”

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Hidden among clothing were goods selected and purchased to support the activities of terrorists, a court was told

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In return for Yahya’s guilty plea, the Crown dropped the more serious allegations against him.

A British citizen since 2003, Yahya was a friend of Yassin Hassen Omar and Muktar Said Ibrahim, the main 21/7 plotters. He attended Finsbury Park mosque with them and went on training camp weekends in the countryside.

He made inquiries about the purchase of large quantities of hydrogen peroxide, a key ingredient for the home-made bombs, before leaving Britain six weeks before the attempted bombings.

Yahya was arrested initially in Ethiopia in November 2005 at the request of the British authorities and returned here voluntarily.

Peter Thornton, QC, for the defence, said that his client was “never a knowing party to the agreement to kill”.

Nigel Sweeney, QC, for the prosecution, said that counts of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions had been withdrawn in Yahya’s case and not guilty verdicts would be entered.

But he said that Yahya admitted collecting information about the purchase of liquid hydrogen peroxide which he knew his former co-defendants were planning to use to produce terrorist explosive devices.

The judge said: “Those, and their parents, brothers and sisters, partners and friends, who are tempted to collect such information should understand that mere collection is now a serious criminal offence which will normally attract a prison sentence whether or not the offender had any intention of actually taking part in a terrorist offence.”

The aggravating feature of Yahya’s case, said the judge, was that he passed the information on to people who were planning to make bombs. The judge added: “The court has had no explanation from you as to why an intelligent young man with a new wife, a possible career in IT and aspirations to start a family would get involved in this way with those he knew were contemplating the making of explosive devices.”

Yahya will serve half his sentence which is also to be reduced by the 546 days he has spent in custody.

Ibrahim, 29, Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussein Osman, 28 were all given life sentences in July for conspiracy to murder and told that they would serve at least 40 years in prison.

Manfo Kwaku Asiedu is due to face a retrial next week after the jury failed to reach a verdict in his case.

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