July 7 accused 'tried to join Taliban'

Last Modified: 20 May 2008
Source: ITN

A man accused of helping the July 7 bombers has told a court he tried to go to the Afghanistan frontline with the ringleader of the bombings.

Waheed Ali, 25, told Kingston Crown Court he "just went with the flow" when his friends suggested joining fighters helping the Taliban.

He travelled to Pakistan to take part in a training camp with Mohammed Siddique Khan in 2001 just months before the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York.

At the camp, situated in mountains in Mansehra, he and Khan learned how to handle weapons like Kalashnikov rifles and Rocket Propelled grenade launchers.

Fired up by their experiences there, Khan and two other recruits from the camp decided to travel to Afghanistan.

But by the time they reached the front line Ali and Khan were both suffering from serious diarrhoea and were told by the fighters that they were too inexperienced to go to the front line.

Ali stayed at base camp helping with the cooking but Khan recovered enough to make trips to the front line.

Ali is charged, with Mohammed Shakil, 31 and Sadeer Saleem, 27, all from Beeston, Leeds, with conspiring with Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay, Hasib Hussain and others unknown to cause explosions between November 17 2004 and July 8 2005. They all deny the charges.

Asked by Mark Wolkind, defending, if he helped plan the July 7 attack he said: "I swear I did not."

He told the jury that he made a trip to London with Sadeer, Saleem and Hussain so he could visit his sister.

The group were planning another trip to Pakistan and hoped to stay for several years and he wanted to say goodbye.

The prosecution has claimed that the group visited the Natural History Museum, the London Eye and the London Aquarium as part of a reconnaissance mission to help the bombers plan their attacks.

But Ali told the court that the trips had been innocent tourist excursions.

On the first day of their December trip he left the group to visit his sister and the rest of the men went to the Natural History Museum.

The following day, he said, they decided to visit the London Eye because Ali, "really wanted to go".

"Sadeer is scared of heights so he sat on the bench in the middle holding on for dear life and me and Hasib jumped up and down."

They planned to take a trip to the London Zoo later that day but decided to see the London Aquarium instead.

He denied using any underground station or entering the underground at any point.

The jury heard that Khan and Tanweer, Ali's close childhood friend, had set off for Pakistan before the London trip despite the fact that they had originally planned to make a group trip with Ali and Sadeer.

They were hoping to establish themselves there and "fight if we got the opportunity".

But Khan and Tanweer decided to go first, assuring Ali that he could follow on behind.

He said: "Ali said: "Sid (Khan) and Kaki (Tanweer) were getting a lot closer. I felt a bit left out but our aim was to go to Pakistan."

"Sid (Khan) went to Bradford to get Visas for himself and Kaki. He didn't get me one and I got a bit vexed because we were supposed to go together. He made a crap excuse and said they would go first and me and Sadeer would come after."

He denied that he and Sadeer had been left behind to carry out the reconnaissance.

When they eventually joined Khan and Tanweer in Pakistan they found that the pair were planning to return to the UK.

"Sid (Khan) said 'we are going to go back to England to do a couple of things for the brothers'

"They gave me no idea whatsoever what they were going to do."

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