Where are they now - the 7/7 supporters who were jailed or are on the run
Though the four 7/7 bombers died alongside their 52 innocent victims, they left a network of fanatics who inspired, assisted and defended them. Some were jailed, others are on the run.
Omar Bakri Muhammad
Radical preacher Omar Bakri Muhammad was the leader of al-Muhajiroun before it was banned by the Government in 2005. The 7/7 bombers were said to have links to al-Muhajiroun and Bakri sparked outrage 20 years ago by saying he would not inform the police if he knew Muslims were planning the attacks.
The 67-year-old fled to Lebanon where he was later jailed for supporting al Qaeda. Released last year after nearly ten years in jail, he is believed to be living in Lebanon's second city Tripoli. In a recent online interview, found by the Middle East Media Research Institute's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor, Bakri claimed that the Muslims have "tamed" the British state and established Sharia law zones. He also appeared to back ISIS and called for a global Caliphate.
He said: "Why are Muslims in Britain more advanced in terms of practicing Islam than any other European country or even Western country? [This is] simply because we tamed them [the British people] … they did not tame us the way they did with the Muslims in France… We even have a Shari'a' zone in some streets."
He added: "We called on them to condemn their own system [of democracy]. Some people said, 'oh these people are crazy! They want to establish khilafa [an Islamic caliphate] in the UK!' I said, 'What's the big deal? Why are you upset with that? … There was an attempt in Syria recently, the Baghdadi caliphate. People don't recognize it, but it was for seven years the domain of Islam … and they [the unbelievers] fought against them and destroyed it. But Muslims worldwide are still working to see the deen [religion] of Allah prevailing wherever they are."
Abdullah el-Faisel
Jamaican-born Abdullah el-Faisel, a hate preacher who had a 'strong influence' on some 7/7 bombers, is in prison in the US. He was previously jailed in the UK for stirring up racial hatred and soliciting murder before he was deported to Jamaica. Ten years ago, we revealed he was recruiting for ISIS from the Caribbean island, defending the beheading of hostages and the taking of Yazidi women as sex slaves.
The New York Police Department launched an undercover investigation into el-Faisel the following year and in 2023 he was jailed for 18 years following his extradition to the US on terror charges. The Muslim convert was named by former Home Secretary John Reid as a "strong influence" on the 7/7 bombers, including ringleader Mohammed Siddique Khan and Germaine Lindsay. He admits meeting Lindsay and his widow Samantha Lewthwaite but denied radicalising them.
Samantha Lewthwaite
Muslim convert Samantha Lewthwaite - or the 'White Widow' - has spent more than a decade on the run as one of the world 's most-wanted terrorists. She was married to 7/7 suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people in the underground between Kings Cross and Russell Square, and had two children with him.
After saying she was 'horrified' by the 7/7 attacks, she fled the UK and has since been linked to a string of terror attacks in Kenya which have killed hundreds, including the 2013 Westgate Mall attack. She is wanted in Kenya and is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice. There were reports the 41-year-old was seen fighting alongside militants in Yemen but her family reportedly believe she may have been killed.
Haroon Rashid Aswat
Haroon Rashid Aswat, a convicted terrorist who met 7/7 bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer in Pakistan, is due to be released from a secure mental facility. Aswat was jailed in 2015 in the US for 20 years having admitted to trying to start a terrorist training camp in Oregon. He was returned to the UK in 2022 and is currently detained under the Mental Health Act.
Aswat is set to be released despite having been deemed a threat to national security. The 50-year-old will be under a notification order which the Metropolitan Police applied for in the High Court earlier this year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Leader Live
28 minutes ago
- Leader Live
King speaks of UK and France's deepening co-operation amid ‘profound challenges'
In a speech marking President Emmanuel Macron's three-day state visit to the UK, Charles highlighted a summit between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the French leader when commentators expect the issue of small boats to be top of the agenda. The King also spoke of the growing environmental threat where the 'very future of our planet hangs in the balance' and the UK and France have a 'critical role to play'. Charles's comments were made at a Windsor Castle state banquet where Sir Mick Jagger and fiancee Melanie Hamrick were among the guests alongside Sir Elton John and husband David Furnish and actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas. The King told the guests, who included the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Prime Minister and senior members of the Cabinet: 'Monsieur le President, the summit that you and the Prime Minister will hold in London this week will deepen our alliance and broaden our partnership still further. 'Our armed forces will co-operate even more closely across the world, including to support Ukraine, as we join together in leading a Coalition of the Willing in defence of liberty and freedom from oppression; in other words, in defence of our shared values.' He went on to say: 'Our security services and police will go further still to protect us against the profound challenges of terrorism, organised crime, cyber attacks and of course irregular migration across the English Channel. 'And our businesses will innovate together, generating growth, trade and investment for our economies and across the world.' Earlier in a speech to MPs and peers, Mr Macron promised to deliver on measures to cut the number of migrants crossing the English Channel, describing the issue as a 'burden' to both countries. He told the gathering in Parliament: 'France and the UK have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness.' Decisions at Thursday's UK-France summit will 'respond to our aims for co-operation and tangible results on these major issues'. In his speech Charles described the UK's closest continental neighbour as 'one of our strongest allies' and said in the face of 'complex threats' France and Britain 'must help to lead the way'. There were lighter moments, with the King joking about the popular French cartoon character Asterix the Gaul's incomprehension about Britons' love of tea with a splash of milk, and how dinner guests had drunk 'English sparkling wine made by a French Champagne house'. And he described the 'perfect combinations' of French and British – Monet's paintings of London fog and Thierry Henry, a former French striker with London football club Arsenal, scoring at Highbury. The French president even winked at the King when Charles mentioned the cultural ties between the UK and France and how a Frenchman, William the Conqueror, began building Windsor Castle more than 900 years ago and his son William has made Windsor his home. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence were also among the guests, as were former England goalkeeper Mary Earps, who now plays for Paris Saint-Germain, authors Joanne Harris and Sebastian Faulks and sculptor Sir Antony Gormley.
Leader Live
28 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Ministers face fresh challenge to welfare reforms in Wednesday votes
The Department for Work and Pensions will try to steer the Universal Credit Bill through its final Commons stages, including clause-by-clause scrutiny, on Wednesday. The Bill, if agreed to, would roll out two different rates of benefit for claimants who cannot currently work. It would also freeze the limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCW and LCWRA) elements of the benefit until 2030. The PA news agency understands that a 'substantial number' of Labour rebels have agreed to vote to gut the Bill of these reforms, if they can trigger a division. When MPs debated the reforms last week, Government frontbenchers rolled back on their plan to reform the separate personal independence payment (Pip) benefit, vowing to revisit any proposed changes only after a review by social security minister Sir Stephen Timms. 'The Government for all the goodwill of pulling clause five on Pip, they've lost it over being so stubborn and obstinate over clauses two and three,' Labour MP for York Central Rachael Maskell said. Clause two of the Bill includes a framework for two rates of LCWRA, with claimants who are eligible for the benefit before April 2026 able to claim a higher rate than later applicants. Claimants who are terminally ill or who have severe symptoms of an illness which 'constantly' apply would also be eligible for the higher rate, regardless of when they become eligible. Ms Maskell has proposed a change to the reforms, so that someone who has slipped out of and then back into the LCWRA eligibility criteria either side of April 2026 would still be able to claim the higher rate. Approving this change would be like 'gathering up the crumbs rather than getting the full course meal', she said. Asked what the Government should do to tackle welfare costs, Ms Maskell told the PA news agency: 'We've got to put the early interventions in to take people off this path of ill health. 'We've got quite a sick society at the moment for all the reasons that we know, a broken NHS, you know, social care not being where it should be, and of course long-term Covid. 'All of that is having its impact, and the endemic mental health challenges that people are facing. 'But to then have the confidence that your programme is so good that it's going to get loads of these people into work and employers are going to have to fulfil their obligations in the future hopefully after the Charlie Mayfield report (the Keep Britain Working review) will make those recommendations – all of that, great, as far as it goes. 'But what we can't do is leave those people that can't work in poverty, because they would love to work and earn money, but they can't, so we have to pay for it. 'And therefore the people who've got the good fortune of earning money, whether it's through income or assets, they're the people that are going to have to support a wider society.' Labour MP for Poole Neil Duncan-Jordan proposed gutting the Bill through a series of draft amendments, to strike clause two and cancel the freeze in clause three. He and Ms Maskell were two of 49 MPs who unsuccessfully tried to block the Bill at second reading, when it cleared its first Commons hurdle by 335 votes to 260, majority 75. Amid fears the Bill had been rushed through Parliament, and referring to the Liberal reformer William Beveridge who published a post-war blueprint for the welfare state in 1942, Mr Duncan-Jordan asked: 'Beveridge didn't design the welfare state on the back of a postage stamp, did he?' Beyond changes to parts of the benefit specifically for people who cannot currently work, the Bill would demand an above-inflation rise to the universal credit standard allowance each year until 2030.
Scottish Sun
32 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Three men working for Wagner terrorist group convicted of arson attack on London warehouse linked to Ukraine
The case is the first to result in convictions of British criminals acting as proxies for the proscribed Wagner Group RUSSIAN PLOT Three men working for Wagner terrorist group convicted of arson attack on London warehouse linked to Ukraine Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THREE MEN working for the Wagner Russian terrorist group were yesterday convicted of an arson attack on a warehouse linked to Ukraine. The trio caused £1 million worth of damage to an industrial unit in Leyton, East London, destroying £100,000 worth of satellite communication equipment destined for Ukraine on March 20 last year. An Old Bailey jury yesterday convicted gang members Nii Mensah, 23, Jakeem Rose, 23, and Ugnius Asmena, 20, of aggravated arson with intent to endanger life. Mensah, of Thornton Heath, South London, livestreamed the warehouse blaze to Earl after he and Rose, from Croydon, set fire to the building as Asmena waited in a car. The case is the first to result in convictions of British criminals acting as proxies for the proscribed Wagner Group. Drug dealer Dylan Earl, 20, and Gatwick Airport cleaner Jake Reeves, 23, orchestrated the plot on behalf of the Russian Wagner group of mercenaries. They planned further arson attacks on a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair and the kidnap of the owner, wealthy Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin. They are the first defendants to be convicted of offences under the National Security Act 2023, designed to thwart attacks in the UK by hostile foreign states. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb adjourned sentencing until a date to be fixed in the autumn. Moment flames engulf car outside Keir Starmer's home as man arrested over 'arson' attack on TWO properties linked to PM
