Jury fails to reach verdict in July 7 bombings case

LONDON - A jury on Friday failed to reach a verdict in the trial of three men accused of helping the July 7 suicide bombers plan their deadly attack on London.

Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Muhammad Shakil, were accused of conspiring with the four bombers and others to cause explosions in 2004 and 2005. But following the three month trial at Kingston Crown Court, a jury of eight women and four men could not decide on their verdicts and were discharged.

The judge gave them majority directions on Friday, the 11th day of their deliberations, but they still could not agree. The trio, who are now facing a re-trial in the new year, were remanded in custody following the decision. The jury had been told that Ali, 25, Saleem, 28, and Shakil, 32, visited a series of locations on December 16 and 17, 2004, which bore a ‘striking similarity’ to the where the bombs were detonated on July 7 the following year. Suicide bombers Muhammad Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay detonated rucksack devices packed with explosives on three tube trains and a bus killing 52 people and injuring up to a thousand more.