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Profiles of the five July 21 accomplices

The five men found guilty today of acting as accomplices to the failed July 21 bombers

Wahbi Mohammed, 25, of Tavistock Crescent, west London, was once a familiar sight on the streets of Notting Hill wearing white traditional robes and handing out Islamic literature with his brother Ramzi Mohammed, who later tried to explode a home-made bomb at Oval Tube station.

Mohammed was at his brother’s home in Dalgarno Gardens, in north Kensington, on the morning of July 21, as the bombers prepared themselves. He took away the video camera they used to make their suicide videos and his brother’s suicide letter.

Counter-terror police believe that he would have been responsible for distributing the disturbing martyrdom messages if the terrorists had been successful.

The Somalia-born accomplice was accused of assisting his brother after the attack by taking him food and a new mobile phone as he hid with fellow plotter Mukhtar Said Ibrahim. The phone enabled Ramzi to get back in touch with another plotter, Hussain Osman.

The prosecution said that Mohammed was extremely close to the bomb plot as it reached its conclusion and in the panicked aftermath. The jury agreed and found him guilty of having prior knowledge of the plans to cause carnage in London.

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Abdul Sherif, 30, of Brixton, looks strikingly similar to his brother, the July 21 bomber Hussain Osman - a fact which enabled Osman to flee the country using his brother’s passport.

Somalia-born Sherif was seen celebrating in a pub after the London bombings of July 7, and openly predicting that there would be more. A pub landlord told of a text message that Sherif showed him which read: “It has to be like this.”

The prosecution later produced telephone record evidence that linked Sherif with mobile phones connected to his fugitive brother in both the UK and Italy.

Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali, 32, of New Southgate, north London, was once fostered by the same family as July 21 bombmaker Yassin Omar and the two formed a close bond. At the time of the July 21 attacks Ali lived in the flat directly above Omar’s eighth-floor bomb factory.

He was also close to the July 21 ringleader Muktar Said Ibrahim, who had a key to Ali’s flat and often stayed there along with other members of the July 21 plot when the fumes in Omar’s bomb factory became overwhelming.

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Ali was incriminated in part by his role in the massive clear up operation of Omar’s flat. Police found bulging communal bins filled with 186 empty bottles of hydrogen peroxide, a key ingredient in the bombs, plus a bottle containing traces of sulphuric acid, light bulbs, rubber gloves and Pakistani banknotes.

There were also personal documents linked to Ibrahim including letters, a National Insurance card and a Co-op bank card.

In Ali’s home, police found hand-written documents relating to the construction of the bombs ripped up in his waste paper bin. On one piece of paper were the words “detonator, charge and Allah” in Arabic.

Forensic experts also found Ibrahim’s fingerprints on a notepad. On one page was Arabic script titled: “Steps to Martyrdom”.

Police also found a business card from Pak Cosmetics, in Finsbury Park, the shop where the high strength hydrogen peroxide was bought.

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Ali admitted to police that he saw Omar’s picture in a newspaper, but said he could not believe it was him and did not contact the authorities because he was in shock.

Muhedin Ali, 29, of west London, was not only a friend of Hussain Osman and his wife Yeshiemebet Girma, but also of the Mohammed brothers with whom he often played football.

Osman gave Ali extremist material, mainly cassette tapes of radical preaching, on the night of July 20

He also held Ramzi Mohammed’s suicide note in a cupboard in his hall, after it was passed to him by Wahbi on the morning of July 21.

Police believed this proved how close Ali was to the bombers. They believed only those who realised its significance could be trusted.

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After the attacks Ali offered Osman a safe house in London while he was on the run. Police tracked several telephone calls between Osman, Ali and the Mohammed brothers.

Ismail Abdurahman, 25, of Vauxhall, was the only defendant not accused of knowing about the July 21 bombings in advance. But the court heard Shepherds Bush bomber Hussain Osman stayed with him immediately before he fled the country on July 26.

Abdurahman, who worked for a firm of solicitors as an administration assistant, was accused of giving him a safe house for three days. The two were caught on CCTV meeting at Clapham Junction railway station as Osman returned from his initial hide out in Brighton.

The jury were told he also acted as a “runner”, retrieving a video camera and passport for Osman. The camera, later recovered from Osman in Rome without its memory card, was thought to have been used to record suicide messages.

Police later found a newspaper with fingerprints from both men on the pages with coverage of the attacks.

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Once Osman was onboard the Eurostar train to Paris, the prosecution said telephone records showed he rang Abdurahman.

Abdurahman told police that as he watched TV coverage of the attacks with Osman at his flat, the bomber pointed at a CCTV picture and said: “That’s me.” Abdurahman said he did nothing because he did not believe him.

When Abdurahman asked Osman why he had done it he replied: “It is only right to kill myself in the name of Allah.”