Failed London bomber’s wife convicted for keeping quiet
LONDON (AFP) — The wife of one of the failed 2005 London suicide bombers was found guilty Wednesday of failing to tell the police about the terrorist plot.
Yeshi Girma, 32, knew her husband Hussain Osman was planning to unleash carnage in the failed July 21, 2005 attacks and could have stopped the attempted bombings, England’s Old Bailey central criminal court heard.
The plot was a bungled attempt to repeat the attacks of exactly two weeks earlier on July 7 when four Islamist extremist suicide bombers killed 52 innocent people on London’s transport network.
Girma, who has three children by Osman, was found guilty by a jury of having information about terrorism and “without reasonable excuse” failing to disclose it.
She was also convicted for assisting an offender and failing to disclose information about Osman’s involvement in the plot.
Girma helped Osman flee and destroyed evidence from the couple’s south London home, the police said.
Prosecutor Max Hill told the court: “She had some information about what the bombers intended to do on July 21, but failed to bring this to the attention of the police.
“Had the bombers successfully and completely detonated the bombs on busy Tube trains that day, there would have been carnage and mass murder.
“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.”
Girma claimed she was not married to Ethiopia-born Osman, did not live with him, and knew little of what he was doing.
She helped Osman flee to Brighton, on the south coast. He later took a train to Paris then travelled on to Rome, where he was arrested.
Girma’s brother Esayas, her sister Mulumebet and her sister’s boyfriend Mohamed Kabashi were all convicted of aiding Osman after the bungled attack.
They are all awaiting sentence.
The jury cleared Kabashi’s two Brighton flatmates, Shadi Abdelgadir and Omer Almagboul, but as illegal overstayers in Britain, they will be deported to Sudan.
Osman was convicted of conspiracy to murder last year alongside fellow failed bombers Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohamed and Muktar Ibrahim. They were each jailed for at least 40 years.
The wave of attacks left Britain on high alert and the government has since ramped up its anti-terror operations, while relations with Britain’s Muslim community were brought sharply into focus.
Osman, Omar, Mohamed and Ibrahim tried to detonate rucksacks laden with home-made explosives on three Underground trains and a bus, but the bombs failed to go off.
At their trial, the four claimed the plot was an elaborate hoax designed to protest against Britain’s military involvement in Iraq.
Their trial judge said the plot was “Al-Qaeda-inspired” and a “viable, indeed a very nearly successful, attempt at mass murder… designed for maximum impact.”
Five other men were jailed in February this year for up to 17 years for helping the plotters to escape capture.
June 12th, 2008 | Category: Arrests, Female Detainee, UK
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