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Extradited London bomb suspect due in court on attempted murder charge | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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LONDON, (AFP) – A man who fled to Italy after allegedly trying to set off one of four bombs in a botched attack in London on July 21 was to appear in court in the British capital charged with attempted murder.

Hussain Osman, a 27-year-old Briton of Ethiopian origin, landed in London on Thursday aboard a private plane from Rome after losing his two-month legal battle against extradition from Italy.

Three alleged co-conspirators — suspected of trying to repeat the bombings on three London subway trains and a bus that killed 56 people on July 7, including the bombers — were charged in August after their arrests in Britain.

Osman, also known as Hamdi Issac, was to appear before a magistrate on Friday at high-security Belmarsh Prison in southeast London.

A plane carrying Osman touched down at RAF Northolt, a military air base in northwest London.

A convoy of police vehicles took him to London”s high-security Paddington Green police station where he was charged in connection with an attempt to set off a bomb on a subway train at Shepherd”s Bush station, west London.

He is charged with attempting to murder commuters and to have unlawfully and maliciously made or had in his possession, or under his control, an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.

He is also alleged to have conspired with others to cause explosions likely to endanger life or cause serious injury.

The plane left Rome”s Ciampino airport after Osman was handed over to British police officers at the capital”s Rebibbia prison.

Italy”s highest appeals court upheld on September 13 a lower-court decision to extradite him at the request of British prosecutors.

The two-month extradition process was being seen as a test case for the new European arrest warrant, brought in to speed up extradition.

The suspect had insisted he wanted to be tried in Italy, where he was charged in connection with &#34international terrorism&#34 and holding false identity papers following his arrest on July 29 at a Rome flat rented by his brother.

Osman evaded heightened British security measures after the attacks and left London by train on July 26, traveling to Rome via Paris and Milan, but was reportedly traced through calls made from his mobile phone.

Osman reportedly told an investigating judge in Italy and British police there that he only wanted to make a &#34bang&#34 with his device, made from an agricultural substance, a defoliant and flour, to protest Western military action in Iraq.

His three alleged co-conspirators were all charged at the beginning of August.

Ibrahim Muktar Said, 27, Ramzi Mohamed, 23 and Yassin Omar, 24, were each charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and making or possessing an explosive with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury.

Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 32, was charged separately with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

They are being held in jail ahead of their next scheduled court appearance on November 14.