'Osama bin London' to be sentenced today

9:36am Friday 7th March 2008

Comments (1)   Have your say »

A FANATIC who organised terrorist training camps, including one in the New Forest, is due to be sentenced later today.

Muslim Mohammed Hamid, 50, who called himself "Osama bin London" was convicted of organising the camps and of encouraging others to murder non-believers at the end of a four-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court, London.

One of the training camps was at Matley Wood, near Lyndhurst.

Three of Hamid's followers, Kibley da Costa, 25, Mohammed Al-Figari, 45, and Kader Ahmed, 20, were found guilty of attending terror camps in the New Forest and at a Berkshire paintballing centre.

Two further members of the gang, Mohammed Kyriacou, 19, and Yassin Mutegombwa, 23, admitted attending terrorist training camps.

Property manager Mousa Brown, 41, was cleared of providing and receiving weapons training and has been freed from custody.

The court heard Hamid led an al Qaida-style terrorist cell and aspired to send his recruits to join camps in Afghanistan and East Africa.

His pupils included five of the July 21 failed bombers, including ringleader Muktar Said Ibrahim, who attended Lake District camps in 2004.

A senior police source said officers would never know whether Hamid and Ahmet intended their followers to attack targets in the UK or overseas.

He said: "They were certainly doing paramilitary training for terrorism, Whether that was to be terrorism overseas or at home I do not know.

"But five of the people convicted of the July 21 attacks attended these camps. We could not rule out the possibility that these people would go on to commit terrorism here."