'Osama bin London' guilty

A MUSLIM fanatic who boasted of being “Osama bin London” has been found guilty of organising terrorist training camps.

Mohammed Hamid, 50, was also convicted of encouraging others to murder non-believers at the end of a four-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Three of his followers, Kibley da Costa, 25, Mohammed Al-Figari, 45, and Kader Ahmed, 20, were found guilty of attending terror camps in the New Forest and at a Berkshire paintballing centre.

Two further members of the gang, Mohammed Kyriacou, 19, and Yassin Mutegombwa, 23, admitted attending terrorist training camps, it can be reported today after restrictions were lifted.

Property manager Mousa Brown, 41, was cleared of providing and receiving weapons training and has been freed from custody.
The court heard Hamid led an al Qaida-style terrorist cell and aspired to send his recruits to join camps in Afghanistan and East Africa.
Among his pupils were five of the July 21 failed bombers, including ringleader Muktar Said Ibrahim, who attended Lake District camps in 2004.

Detectives said although there is no evidence Hamid organised the attacks, he was partly responsible for the state of mind of those that did.
He boasted that the July 7 attacks were “not even breakfast for me” and hours afterwards sent a text message to his friend, July 21 conspirator Hussain Osman.
It read: “We fear no-one except Allah. We will not change our ways, we are proud to be Muslim and we will not hide.”

Paintballing

Hamid organised outdoor activities including camping and paintballing at sites in the Lake District, New Forest, Berkshire, Kent and East Sussex.
The jury found three of these trips were terrorist training designed to recruit, groom and corrupt impressionable young Muslims.

They were combined with incendiary weekly talks at his east London council home where he sowed the seeds of hate among his followers.
He was joined in his teachings by Atilla Ahmet, 43, the self-styled emir of the gang, who admitted three charges of soliciting murder at the start of the trial.

Ahmet was Abu Hamza’s right-hand man at Finsbury Park Mosque and took control of his notorious Supporters of Shariah group after his arrest in 2004.
One senior police source said officers will never know whether Hamid and Ahmet intended their followers to attack targets in the UK or overseas.

He said: “They were certainly doing paramilitary training for terrorism.
Whether that was to be terrorism overseas or at home, I do not know.
“But five of the people convicted of the July 21 attacks attended these camps.
We could not rule out the possibility that these people would go on to commit terrorism here.”