4 of 6 Accused London Bombers are Convicted

Four of six men^[1] accused in a failed attempt to blow up portions of London's public transit system in 2005 were convicted yesterday of conspiracy to commit murder. The jury will continue deliberations on the fate of the other two defendants today.^[2] The panel unanimously rejected the defense contention that the bombs, which failed to explode, were meant merely to scare the public and prompt government officials to reconsider British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.^[3]

Prosecutors linked the failed bombings on July 21, 2005, to successful suicide attacks on the London transit system two weeks earlier, which killed 52 people and injured hundreds.^[4] "The failure of those bombs to explode owed nothing to the intention of these defendants. Rather it was simply the good fortune of the traveling public that day that they were spared," prosecuting lawyer Nigel Sweeney said in court.^[5]

The men were inspired by the bombings of July 7, 2005, according to the defense.^[6] After searching the Internet, Ibrahim said he found instructions for building bombs through a terrorist website and intentionally changed the procedure so that the explosives would not detonate, the defense argued.^[7]

However the prosecution showed evidence that Ibrahim had spent three months training in Pakistan in 2004 at the same time as Mohamed Sidique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer, two bombers who died in the July 7 attacks.^[8] He learned to build bombs similar to those used by Khan and Tanweer, the prosecutors said.^[9]

The handmade explosives, constructed on a kitchen stove in London, included household ingredients including flour, hydrogen peroxide, and acetone, which is found in nail polish remover.^[10] The defendants were said to have placed the bombs in buckets and glued nails, screws, and other sharp objects to them as shrapnel.^[11]

Forensics specialists asserted that the unique composition of the explosives linked the two conspiracies, "[p]rior to July 2005, we had never had this sort of material submitted to the laboratory before," Claire McGavigan, a scientist at the Forensics Explosives Laboratory, testified in January.^[12]

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^[1] The jury convicted Muktar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, Yassin Omar, and Hussain Osman, however the panel still must determine the fates of Manfo Asiedu, and Adel Yahya.
^[2] Alicia Lozano, 4 convicted in failed London attacks, Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2007, available at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-britconvict10jul10,0,6719550.story?coll=la-home-world (last visited July 10, 2007).
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] Id.