London police 'warned in 2003'

2005-08-06 18:08

London - Mosque leaders in south London wrote to police two years ago to express concern about a man who now is a key suspect in the failed July 21 bombings in London, a trustee of the mosque said on Friday.

Stockwell Mosque asserted in its letter to a senior district police official that Hamdi Issac, 27, was among a group of people involved in "inciting racial and religious hatred in the community".

It said the group had been spreading extremist views and literature, and targeting moderate leaders of the mosque for abuse.

"We believe that this group is trying to undermine both the authority and moderate approach of the centre's management, imams and community," the letter said.

"They have an agenda to turn this centre into another Finsbury Park mosque," a Muslim centre of worship in north London formerly known as a meeting point for Islamist hardliners.

Issac, alias Osman Hussein, 27, is suspected of trying to detonate a bomb at Shepherd's Bush subway station in west London as part of an four-pronged attempt to repeat the July 7 bombings that killed 56 people.

The Ethiopian-born Briton was arrested on July 29 in Rome where he is fighting extradition.

Toaha Qureshi, a trustee of Stockwell Mosque, said on Friday: "We could not have been more explicit. It was put in such a manner that it should have been taken seriously."

"If they had done something, then I don't know how many lives we could have saved," he was quoted as saying by Britain's domestic Press Association news agency.

The letter was sent on July 24, 2003 to Malcolm Tillyer, deputy borough commander of the Metropolitan Police in the vibrant multicultural Brixton section of south London.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson refused to comment on the letter, saying: "We consider any correspondence we may receive as confidential."

- AFP