Five of the men on trial for plotting to bomb innocent Londoners had been under surveillance in the Lake District, a court was told.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that pictures were taken of the group during a camping trip in Langdale, Cumbria, 14 months before the men’s failed attempt to detonate bombs on the capital’s transport system.
The jury at the trial was shown pictures of the men, taken by police, of the alleged bombers dressed in outdoor gear and loading camping equipment into cars, with the Langdale fells as a backdrop. The photographs were taken in May 2004.
Ramzi Mohammed, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Hussein Osman and Adel Yahya were watched by police while they packed up their tents on a campsite in Langdale. Police started the surveillance on May 3, but have not said what prompted them. The men were seen praying with a man described as seeming to be their leader. They were part of a bigger group of about 20 Muslims camping on a farm in the Lakeland beauty spot.
Prosecutor Nigel Sweeney QC said Mr Osman, Mr Yahya and Mr Omar had also been on other camping trips to Scotland, where two of them had been injured. He told the court that Mr Ibrahim was in control of the group. He had received military training in Sudan in 2003 and had travelled to Pakistan in December 2004 to take part in jihad or train for it.
The five men, along with co-defendant Manfo Kwaku Asiedu deny charges of conspiracy to murder between January 2005 and July 2005 and conspiracy to cause explosions between the same dates. Five of the men have London addresses and the sixth is of no fixed abode.
Mr Sweeney told the jury that the group had made rucksack bombs from chapatti flour, hydrogen peroxide and nail varnish remover. They had incorporated nuts, screws and bolts to cause maximum physical damage and attempted to detonate the bombs on the Underground system and a bus, two weeks after the July 7 bombs which killed 52 people. The prosecution said it was pure fortune that the bombs had failed to explode.
The trial of the six defendants continues.
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