Bomb plot suspect jailed nearly 7 years

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - A man accused of helping to plot botched 2005 suicide bombings on London was sentenced to nearly seven years in jail on Monday after he pleaded guilty to a lesser offence.

Ethiopian-born Adel Yahya was one of six men to go on trial accused of plotting al Qaeda-inspired attacks on London's transport system on July 21, 2005, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people in London.

Detectives said the second plot only failed because the bombers' homemade devices failed to explode.

Yahya, who had flown to Ethiopia six weeks before the bombings, was not accused of being one of the four men who tried to carry out the attacks. However, prosecutors had accused him of being a central figure in the plot.

While four of his co-accused, Muktah Said Ibrahim, Yassin Hassan Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussein Osman, were jailed for at least 40 years each in July for conspiracy to murder, the jury failed to reach a verdict over Yahya.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of collecting information useful for militants, a week before he was scheduled to face a re-trial.

He was jailed for six years and nine months.

During the trial, Yahya admitted making inquiries about hydrogen peroxide -- the main ingredient in the homemade bombs -- on behalf of his friend Omar but said he did not realise it was for making bombs.