Fifth bomber jailed for 33 years
Manfo Kwaku Asiedu - 'fifth bomber' during failed 21/7 suicide attacks - jailed for 33 years
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Tuesday, 20, Nov 2007 08:27
The man who was meant to be the fifth bomber in London on July 21st two years ago has been sentenced to 33 years in jail.
Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, had admitted the charge at the Old Bailey earlier this month, avoiding a costly retrial in the process.
He was sentenced at Kingston crown court today for his role in the failed suicide bomb attacks of 2005, with the judge recommending that he be deported to his native Ghana.
Asiedu, who has also gone under the name Sumaila Abu Bakari, had originally been on trial for conspiracy to murder but the jury were unable to come to a verdict and the charge was dropped.
Earlier this year four other men were sentenced to life in jail for the failed attempt to explode four bombs on London's public transport network two weeks after the July 7th bombings killed 52 people.
During a six-month trial Woolwich crown court heard how the four convicted men attempted to blow up tube trains at London's Oval and Warren Street underground stations, as well as a tube train near Shepherd's Bush station and a bus in Hackney.
The jury heard how their bombs, made of hydrogen peroxide and chapatti flour and covered in shrapnel, had been designed to kill the plotters and their fellow passengers.
Asiedu was alleged to have dumped his device after losing his nerve over the planned attack.
His defence centred on his unwillingness to be a part of the plot and his decision to opt out when he realised the intention was to kill.
Muktar Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, Yassin Omar and Hussain Osman are likely to spend the next 40 years in jail.
A sixth man, Adel Yahya, 24, from Tottenham in north London, also pleaded guilty to possession of information likely to be of use to terrorists.
Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke, the UK's senior counterterrorism officer, said that Asiedu was a "dedicated terrorist who consistently lied about the role he played in this plot".