Woman convicted of helping al-Quaeda terrorist escape the UK
The wife of the 21/7 Shepherd's Bush bomber was convicted at the Old Bailey on Thursday, 12 June, of helping Hussain Osman to escape justice.
Yeshi Girma, 32, knew that Osman planned to detonate a home made suicide bomb on tube but did not warn police.
She also ensured Shepherd's Bush bomber Hussain Osman could lie low in Brighton before fleeing Britain after his failed suicide bomb attempt.
Osman took a Eurostar train to Paris and made his way to Rome before being extradited back to the UK and is now serving a life sentence.
Seventeen people have now been convicted of offences connected with the attempted attacks on London's transport network in July 2005, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people.
Osman was one of four al-Qaeda terrorists who took their homemade bombs on to the Tube. The other targets were the Oval and Warren Street stations and a No 26 bus travelling along Shoreditch High Street. A fifth explosive device was dumped in undergrowth near Wormwood Scrubs.
The four would-be bombers were convicted of conspiracy to murder and given lengthy jail sentences last year. ]
During her four-month trial, Max Hill QC, prosecuting, said Yeshi knew what the gang planned but "failed to bring this to the attention of the police".
He said: "Yeshi Girma could have attempted to prevent the attacks, which but for shortcomings in the production of the explosive devices, would have killed and injured many people."
Yeshi claimed she had no idea what Osman was planning. She said she was not married to him and although she had three children with him, they did not live together.
But, the court heard, the night before the planned attack she moved some of Osman's property across London knowing that if the plan succeeded he would not need it again.
When she heard that the bombs failed to detonate, she drove to Wandsworth to pick Osman up, gave him a phone and took him to stay with her sister Mulu in Brighton. She then returned to London and withdrew cash for Osman.
Yeshi, of Stockwell, was found guilty of failing to disclose information, helping an offender and failing to disclose information which could have prevented an act of terrorism.
Mulu and Esayas Girma, both of Stockwell, were convicted of failing to disclose information which could have led to Osman's arrest. Mulu was also convicted of of assisting Osman to escape. Her boyfriend Mohamed Kabashi had admitted failing to disclose information.
June 12, 2008
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