The jury trying three men accused of helping the July 7 suicide bombers plan their attack by carrying out a two-day reconnaissance mission in London has failed to reach verdicts.
Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil visited the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium while allegedly pinpointing potential targets during the trip seven months before the 2005 atrocity.
The trio, from Beeston, Leeds, stood trial charged with conspiring with the four bombers and others unknown to cause explosions between November 17, 2004, and July 8, 2005.
But following the three month trial at Kingston Crown Court, a jury of eight women and four men could not decide on their verdicts and were discharged.
The jury had been told that Ali, 25, Saleem, 28, and Shakil, 32, visited a series of locations on December 16 and 17, 2004, which bore a "striking similarity" to the where the bombs were detonated on July 7 the following year.
Suicide bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay detonated rucksack devices packed with explosives on three tube trains and a bus killing 52 people and injuring up to a thousand more.
The trial heard that the three defendants travelled from Leeds to London with Hussain, who later detonated his bomb on the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square claiming 13 lives. There they met Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train, and the group stayed overnight in a hostel.
The prosecution alleged that the trip was "an essential preparatory step in the plan to bring death and destruction to the heart of the UK".
Detailed 'cell site analysis' of mobile phone use, including calls to the London Tourist Board and various attractions, allowed the group's movements across London to be mapped.
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The three defendants admitted making the visit but claimed it was an entirely innocent "social outing" and the purpose was for Ali to visit his sister.
