'Fifth bomber' in July 21 plot sentenced to 33 years in Britain

Nov 20, 2007, 19:24 GMT

Manfo Asiedu, known as the \'fifth bomber,\' was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court, near London, for \'conspiracy to cause an explosion.\'

London - A 34-year-old man from Ghana was sentenced to 33 years in jail by a British court Tuesday for his part in the attempted bombing of London's transport network on July 21, 2005.

Manfo Asiedu, known as the 'fifth bomber,' was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court, near London, for 'conspiracy to cause an explosion.'

Asiedu, who had befriended the other four bombers sentenced in July this year, was supposed to have exploded his rucksack device but 'lost his nerve at the last moment' and dumped it in a park in West London.

He had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing.

The presiding judge, ruling that Asiedu should serve two-thirds of his sentence before he could be released and deported to Ghana, said he had known about the plot 'but did nothing to stop it.'

The defence had argued that Asiedu, who came to Britain in 2003, had simply 'fallen in with the wrong crowd' at the north London mosque where he met the other bombers.

At the trial in July, Asiedu testified against his fellow-defendants. He faced a retrial after the jury at the July proceedings failed to agree on a conviction.

The four men who took an active part in the attempted bomb plot were all given life terms by Woolwich Crown Court in London.

They were Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25 and Hussain Osman, 28, who were all refugees from Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea.

The attempted attack was staged exactly two weeks after the London transport suicide bombings of July 7, 2005, in which 52 people died and more than 700 were injured.