Jury fails to reach verdict in London 7/7 case

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - A jury failed to reach a verdict on Friday in the trial of three Britons accused of helping to plot the deadly London suicide bombings in July 2005, which left 52 dead.

Mohammed Shakil, Sadeer Saleem and Waheed Ali were accused of scouting London for possible targets with two of the four young British Muslims who detonated homemade devices in coordinated attacks on three underground trains and a bus.

However, the jury at Kingston Crown Court failed to reach a verdict on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions.

For more on the case: here

The three men were friends of the bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain, who they knew from the tightly-knit area of Beeston in Leeds, attending the same Mosque and gym.

Although they were not accused of being directly involved in making the bombs or carrying out the attacks, detectives said the men had shared the same extremist beliefs.

The court heard that police discovered links between the men through mobile phone records, fingerprints connecting them to the bomb-factory in Beeston, family videos and surveillance.

In November 2004, Khan, the ringleader of the 7/7 plot, recorded a farewell video for his baby daughter in 2004 before heading off on a mission to Afghanistan where he expected to die, prosecutors said.