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Osama 'bin London' in dock
11/10/2007 19:09 - (SA)
London - Grainy and silent footage of young men practicing crawling, forward rolls and carrying each other at an alleged terrorist training camp west of London was shown to jurors on Thursday at the trial of five men charged with terrorism offences.
A senior figure in the group is Mohammed Hamid, who once allegedly identified himself to police as "Osama bin London."
All five deny the terrorism charges against them.
Prosecutor David Farrell told the court that participants pretended to hold guns during the military drills at New Forest National Park, about 145km south-west of London.
"These video clips show basic military training ... It forms the first part of their terrorist training," Farrell said.
Deny links to terrorist training
Another clip showed a close-up of a melon being chopped in half as men cheered. Farrell told the jury they would later be shown DVDs that belonged to some of the defendants of beheadings taken from the internet.
"What you see in these sections is not mere religious instruction, is it?" Farrell told the jury.
Hamid, 50, Mousa Brown, 41, Kibley da Costa, 24, Mohammed Al-Figari, 42, and Kader Ahmed, 20 - all London residents - are on trial and deny links to terrorist training.
Atilla Ahmet, a sixth man accused along with them, has pleaded guilty to soliciting murder in connection with the alleged plot to organise terrorist training camps across Britain. Ahmet was a top aide to jailed radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.
The men were among 12 people arrested after September 2006 raids in London.
A participant in the training shot the footage with his mobile phone, Farrell told the court. An undercover officer infiltrated the group after claiming he wanted to convert to Islam, also attended the camp and police also hid a camera in the woods nearby.
Farrell said the four men convicted in the failed July 21 2005 London transit bombings attended camps and meetings organised by Hamid.
- AP
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