An Eritrean-born man accused of masterminding four attempted bombings on July 21, 2005 in London denied on Friday that he had plotted them with the men who killed 52 people in suicide attacks two weeks earlier.
Muktar Said Ibrahim denied the suggestion in a dramatic exchange with the lawyer for one of his co-defendants - the first time it has been alleged in a British court that the two waves of attacks were part of a single plan.
Lawyer Stephen Kamlish said Ibrahim had been in Pakistan at the same time as Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the four young British Muslims who carried out the deadly suicide attacks in London on July 7, 2005.
"Has there been any discussion between you and them on how to make effective bombs to start a bombing campaign in this country, the first of which was 7/7, the second of which was going to be 21/7?" Britain's Press Association quoted Kamlish as asking.
Ibrahim, who has lived in Britain since 1990, said: "No". Ibrahim and five others are on trial over what the prosecution calls an "extremist Muslim plot". The six African-born Muslims have all denied conspiracy to murder. Ibrahim has said his plan was to build fake bombs which would scare but not kill.
Authorities have never previously made clear what, if any, connection existed between the July 7 bombers and the authors of the alleged second plot. Prosecutors at the start of Ibrahim's trial said the July 21 attacks were a long-planned operation, not a copycat scheme hastily thrown together in the wake of July 7.
Kamlish said the explosive used in both waves of attacks was hydrogen peroxide, which British authorities had not previously encountered in improvised devices. "There is a question mark whether or not the only two ever-known bombs made from hydrogen peroxide are the 7/7 and 21/7 bombs and you were in Pakistan at the same time (as Khan and Tanweer) - you see the coincidence, don't you?"
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