Terrorist leader in Britain convicted

LONDON —  A Tanzanian-born Muslim who dubbed himself “Osama bin London” was found guilty Tuesday of encouraging his followers to murder nonbelievers and of running terrorist training camps in Britain.

Mohammed Hamid, 50, who came to England when he was 5, was convicted along with three followers: Kibley da Costa, 25, Mohammed Figari, 45, and Kader Ahmed, 20, whom the jury found guilty of attending the training camps.

A fifth suspect, Atilla Ahmet, 43, who once boasted of being Al Qaeda’s top figure in Europe, at the start of the trial admitted guilt on three charges of soliciting murder.

The complex four-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court was closely watched in Britain, as Hamid was accused of providing the inspiration for the men who tried to carry out suicide bombings on London’s transport system on July 21, 2005, two weeks after 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers in a similar attack. The latter attacks were unsuccessful.

In a separate hearing linked to the trial, two other members of the group admitted attending a terrorist training camp.

Sentencing will take place at a later date.

“Hamid and Ahmet are dangerous people who between them carried out the recruitment, grooming and terrorist training of young men,” said Peter Clarke, head of counter-terrorism for London’s Metropolitan Police Service.

Prosecutors said Ahmet and Hamid prepared the men for jihad, or holy war, by organizing terrorism training disguised as camping or paintball trips in rural locations around Britain.

An undercover officer who helped secure the convictions said he had heard a conversation in which Hamid boasted: “Fifty-two, that’s not even breakfast for me,” referring to the July 7 attacks.

Britain’s security services say numerous Britons have traveled abroad to Al Qaeda camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan to learn militant training skills, but this was the first case involving training in Britain.

The jury was shown pictures of the men practicing firing positions using sticks instead of guns, pretending to throw grenades and crawling through streams.