Mohammed Gulzar, 27, was described by the prosecution as a “shadowy figure” who arrived in Britain using a false identity and was in frequent telephone contact with people in Pakistan.

Despite the Crown’s claims that he was a key figure in the liquid bomb plot, he was acquitted of all charges by the jury.

Gulzar is from Birmingham but also lived for a period in Portsmouth. He left Britain in 2002 after his alleged involvement in the offence and arrived in Pakistan in November that year. In mid2006 he moved to South Africa.

Six weeks before leaving South Africa he married Zorra Siddique, a divorcee, having told her he was a religious missionary. She believed him to be Altaf Ravat when she agreed to marry him. Police only discovered his real identity from fingerprint records after his arrest.

He is expected to be questioned over a serious criminal offence in Birmingham in 2002.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, a married father of a young child, has a degree in computer systems engineering. He was born in East London and lived in Walthamstow, where he knew a number of his co-conspirators from sixth-form college.

Ali visited Pakistan extensively and claimed many of his trips were as a volunteer for an Islamic medical charity. But in reality he was attending training camps and meeting senior figures in militant groups.

Ali took the lead role in recording the “suicide videos” found by police. He was recorded as he discussed taking his baby on the bombing mission to reduce his chances of arousing suspicion.

Prisoners in Belmarsh jail have described Ali as the “emir” or leader of the East London group ,with considerable influence over other inmates. Ali was convicted of conspiracy to murder and had previously admitted conspiracy to cause explosions and cause a public nuisance.

Assad Ali Sarwar, 28, lived with his parents and sister in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He was a university drop-out and unemployed at the time of his arrest.

Sarwar was too valuable to be allowed to die in a suicide mission. He was the man who would distribute the martyrdom videos after the attack and who conducted detailed research on oil refineries and power stations as possible alternative targets for the bombers.

He also scoured the country to obtain supplies of hydrogen peroxide for use in bombmaking. Strong concentrations of the chemical became harder to obtain after the July 2005 bombings in London. He was convicted of conspiracy to murder and admitted conspiracy to cause explosions and cause a public nuisance.

Tanvir Hussain, 27, was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, but moved to London with his family when he was 6 and met Ali while studying A levels at Waltham Forest College. By 2003 he was a devout Muslim and began to display signs of extremism. One former colleague at St Anne’s Hospital, North London, said he became “quite agitated” after the 7/7 attacks in London. Zenda Rogers added: “He said I didn’t understand what was going on and they were being persecuted.”

Hussain was convicted of conspiracy to murder and admitted conspiring to cause explosions and cause a public nuisance.

Four other men admitted a charge of conspiring to cause a public nuisance. The jury was unable to reach verdicts on them in relation to charges of conspiracy to murder and they may face a retrial.

They were Waheed Zaman, 24, from Walthamstow, northeast London; Umar Islam, 30, known as Brian Young before he converted to Islam, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, born in Pakistan, from London; and Ibrahim Savant, 27, from Walthamstow, northeast London.

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