London: There is no evidence that the
security services could have prevented the 2005 London
bombings, a coroner found today while warning that changes
were necessary to help prevent further such atrocities.
The exhaustive inquests examining the deaths of the 52
victims of the al Qaeda-inspired July 7, 2005 suicide attacks
on three underground trains and a bus found they were all
unlawfully killed.
The coroner, judge Heather Hallett, said the evidence
"does not justify the conclusion that any failings of any
organisation or individual caused or contributed to the
deaths".
The inquest heard that the MI5 domestic intelligence
agency and the police had several opportunities to identify
one of the four suicide bombers as a jihadist who had attended
training camps in Pakistan.
But Hallett said: "There is simply no evidence at all,
that the Security Service knew of, and therefore failed to
prevent, the bombings on 7/7."
Though around a third of the victims initially
survived the explosions, she found there was nothing more that
the emergency services could have done to keep them alive.
"I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that
each of them would have died whatever time the emergency
services reached and rescued them," she said.
The verdicts and recommendations were given to a
packed courtroom at the Royal Courts of Justice in London
following nearly five months of hearings which examined the
attacks in detail, shedding new light on the worst terror
atrocity on British soil.
Over 73 days, some 309 witnesses gave evidence and a
197 statements were read. The hearings generated 34,000
documents.
The attacks were carried out by four British
Islamists, two of whom had made video statements spliced with
footage of al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The verdicts came less than a week after the death of
al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
PTI
