Suspect in 2d London attack is charged with conspiracy
LONDON -- The first of four men suspected of botching an attempt to duplicate the deadly attacks on London's transportation system last month was charged with conspiracy and attempted murder yesterday.
Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, is scheduled to appear at the high-security court at Belmarsh Prison tomorrow to face four charges connected to the failed attempt to blow up three subway trains and a bus July 21. Metropolitan Police said Omar was charged with conspiracy to murder, possession of explosives, attempted murder, and conspiracy to cause explosions after he allegedly tried to set off a bomb on a Victoria Line train near Warren Street Station.
The charges against Omar amount to a direct rebuttal by police of claims by one of Omar's alleged accomplices, Osman Hussain, 27, who has told Italian authorities that he and the other men involved in the conspiracy did not intend to kill anyone.
Hussain, who was arrested July 29 in Rome after slipping out of Britain, claims that he and his accomplices blew up detonator caps hidden in their backpacks only to scare commuters who were on edge after the July 7 attacks killed 56 people, including the four bombers.
Police said they still do not know whether the failed bombers knew or were part of a wider conspiracy involving the July 7 attackers, three of whom came from the northern city of Leeds, about 180 miles north of London.
Omar was arrested in a predawn raid in Birmingham, about 100 miles northwest of London, six days after the failed bombings. He arrived in Britain as a 12-year-old refugee from Somalia. He and his family were granted asylum in Britain, and over the past six years had lived in a government-subsidized London apartment in New Southgate, drawing nearly $50,000 in housing allowances.
Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled a 12-point plan Friday to make it easier to deport extremists and their supporters, and make it harder for them to enter the country, in part to assuage public outrage over reports that some of the bombing suspects had repaid the country's generosity in offering them sanctuary and financial handouts by trying to murder Britons.
Hussain, believed to be a native of Ethiopia, is suspected of gaining entry to the country by falsely claiming he was fleeing Somalia, while another suspect, Muktar Said Ibrahim, entered the country as a 12-year-old refugee from Eritrea, and was able to gain a British passport despite having served time in prison here.
The fourth man suspected of carrying backpacks loaded with bombs that did not explode is Ramzi Mohammed.
Omar is the seventh person charged in connection with the botched attacks, but the first to face charges of direct involvement in the plot. Three other men were arraigned yesterday on charges that they withheld information from police investigating the plot and were ordered held without bail. Another man and two women, Hussain's wife and sister-in-law, face similar charges of withholding information and are being held without bail.
Police have until Friday to charge or release the suspects or apply for more time to question them.
Police are also trying to determine whether Mohammed's 23-year-old brother, Wahbi, was a potential fifth bomber who dumped a bomb in a backpack that was found hidden in a hedge in a park near the apartment where his brother and Ibrahim were arrested in a dramatic, televised raid July 29.
Hussain is fighting attempts to extradite him from Italy to face interrogation and possible charges here.
While the previous six people facing charges of withholding information from police were arraigned at Bow Street Magistrate's Court near busy Covent Garden, police officials said Omar will be arraigned at a magistrate's session held at Belmarsh because the facility is more remote and has tighter security.
