Failed White City Bomber Jailed

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Thirty three years for fifth 21/7 plot terrorist

A man involved in the 21/7 plot to blow up an underground train on the Hammersmith and City Line White City Station has been jailed for 33 years.

Manfo Asiedu (34) had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions of a nature likely to endanger life between March and July 2005 at a previous hearing.

He was one of five people tried over the failed attacks which came two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people on three underground trains and a bus in London in early July.

Ghanian-born Asiedu, of no fixed address, was described as a "trusted and major participant" in the failed suicide plot to attack London's transport network on July 21s He was tasked with exploding his rucksack bomb on the tube at White City station but "lost his nerve at the last moment" and dumped it in woodland.

Judge Mr Justice Calvert-Smith told Kingston Crown Court in south-west London that Asiedu would serve at least half of his sentence and recommended his deportation on his release.

He said the defendant had lied on an "epic scale" about his involvement in the planning of the attacks in which four bombs were detonated on three tube trains and a bus, but the main charge failed to ignite.

He told Asiedu that he had done nothing to try and stop the "attempted mass murder" of innocent citizens and had denied the public an explanation for the motivation behind this "dreadful crime".

The court had heard that Asiedu had played a key role in buying ingredients for the devices and helped make up the home-made bombs on the eve of the attacks.

He lived in a one-bedroom flat, turned into a bomb-making factory in New Southgate, north London, with some of the men now convicted in connection with the attack.
Following the failed suicide attacks he returned to the flat and tried to dispose of incriminating evidence by dumping it in the communal bins.

Asiedu was charged under the names of Sumaila Abubakhari, also known as Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, as he used fake identities since coming to the UK in December 2003.
He changed his plea to guilty earlier this month at the last minute ahead of a retrial.

Four men linked to Asiedu - Muktah Said Ibrahim, Yassin Hassan Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussein Osman - tried to detonate hydrogen peroxide-based bombs but their homemade devices failed to explode and no one was killed.

They were jailed for a minimum of 40 years each. Adel Yahya was jailed for nearly seven years earlier this month after pleading guilty to a lesser offence.

 

November 27, 2007