Man denies city trip was for 7/7

Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil deny the charge

A man who visited London months before the 7 July 2005 attacks has denied the trip was to find possible targets.

Sadeer Saleem said there had been nothing untoward about his visit with two of the future suicide bombers.

Kingston Crown Court heard that the Leeds man felt "overwhelming shock" when he later learned of the bombings.

Mr Saleem and two other men deny conspiracy to cause an explosion by taking part in the alleged scouting trip in December 2004.

In the main part of his evidence, Mr Saleem told the trial that the trip to London was organised because co-defendant Waheed Ali wanted to say goodbye to his sister who lived in the East End.

Mr Saleem told the jury the trip was taken up with sightseeing, praying and eating out - and not with time surveying the London Underground network.

"What were your thoughts when it was suggested to you that this was hostile reconnaissance," asked Andrew Hall QC, defending.

"When the police first mentioned that, it was surprise," he said. "What London trip were they thinking about. It took me a few minutes to remember."

Kidney beans

The trial had earlier heard that Mr Saleem and Mr Ali flew to Pakistan on Boxing Day 2004 and joined a mujahideen training camp.

Their friends Mohammad Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the four 7/7 bombers, were already training in the country.

But Mr Saleem told the jury the training was not as glamorous as it appeared in videos glorifying Muslim fighters.

All they had to eat were chapattis and kidney beans and it was so cold they could barely take off their clothes, he said.

That London trip was so insignificant... How the prosecution have come up with reconnaissance is beyond me, it's pathetic Sadeer Saleem

After a number of weeks of tedious physical exercises and technical training with AK-47 rifles, he asked to leave the compound near the Afghan border.

"I got fed up of it. I got homesick," he said.

The court heard that when Mr Saleem caught up with Siddique Khan back in Leeds, the future bomber appeared annoyed.

"I'd told him that I could not hack it [the training]," said Mr Saleem.

Mr Hall asked: "Did you have at any stage any idea whatsoever what Mohammad Siddique Khan and others were planning to do?"

"I had no idea whatsoever," said Mr Saleem.

"What was your reaction to hearing about the deaths of 52 people and the maiming of six or seven hundred others?" Mr Hall asked.

"I could not believe what had happened. It was overwhelming shock."

"Did that trip to London have anything to do with what subsequently happened on 7 July?"

"That London trip was so insignificant, it was at the back of my mind. How the prosecution have come up with reconnaissance is beyond me, it's pathetic."

Sadeer Saleem, Waheed Ali and Mohammed Shakil all deny conspiracy to cause an explosion. The case continues.