Hamdi Adus Isaac (also Hussain Osman or Osman Hussain) (born 27 July 1978) is an Islamist terrorist who was found guilty of having placed an explosive at the

Shepherd's Bush tube station Shepherd's Bush is a London Underground station. It is located in the district of Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The station is on the Central line between White City and Holland Park stations, and is in Tr ...

during the failed

21 July 2005 London bombings On 21 July 2005, four attempted bomb attacks by four Islamism, Islamist extremists disrupted part of London's public transport system as a follow-up attack to the 7 July 2005 London bombings two weeks earlier. The explosions occurred around mid ...

. Born in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, Hussain is a naturalised British citizen married to Yeshshiemebet Girma. On 29 July 2005, he was arrested during a 40-officer raid at his brother-in-law's apartment in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, after mobile phone calls led police to believe he was hiding there. He was later extradited to the UK in September under a

European Arrest Warrant The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is an arrest warrant valid throughout all member states of the European Union (EU). Once issued, it requires another member state to arrest and transfer a criminal suspect or sentenced person to the issuing stat ...

and charged with attempted murder. He stood trial along with five other suspects.

Background

Former CSIS operative

Huda Mukbil Huda Mukbil is a Canadian former security intelligence operative and prominent social activist. Early life Mukbil was born into a middle-class family in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, and her family fled during the Ethiopian Civil War in the 70s. She an ...

discusses in her book that Isaac spoke

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

Harari language Harari is an Ethio-Semitic language spoken by the Harari people of Ethiopia. Old Harari is a literary language of the city of Harar, a central hub of Islam in the Horn of Africa. According to the 2007 Ethiopian census, it is spoken by 25,810 pe ...

Motives

During the initial investigation in Rome, Hussain said he was motivated to participate in the attacks after viewing videos of war-torn Iraq. "I am against war," Osman said. "I've marched in peace rallies and nobody listened to me. I never thought of killing people." He explained that the bombs were never meant to detonate or kill anybody, only to draw attention to the Iraq war. Hussain was alleged to have stated: "More than praying we discussed work, politics, the war in Iraq ... we always had new films of the war in Iraq ... more than anything else those in which you could see Iraqi women and children who had been killed by US and UK soldiers." Other news sources reported that the bombers watched videos purportedly depicting Coalition troops killing women and children in Iraq before embarking on their mission. Some quoted him as saying "

Muktar A mukhtar (; ) is a village chief in the Levant: "an old institution that goes back to the time of the Ottoman rule". According to Amir S. Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, the mukhtar "for centuries were the central figures". They "were ...

showed us some DVDs with images of the war in Iraq, especially women and children killed by American and British soldiers," Hussain said, adding that they were not to talk about these videos with others. "There was a feeling of hatred and conviction that it was necessary to give signal — to do something." Hussain denied links with either the Al-Qaeda or the 7 July bombers. He claimed there was no bomb in his rucksack, just ordinary flour and a detonator meant to make the loud popping sound that was heard.

Trial and sentence

On 9 July 2007, Hussain Osman was found guilty at

Woolwich Crown Court Woolwich Crown Court, or more accurately the Crown Court at Woolwich, is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases on Belmarsh Way, Thamesmead, London, England. History In the early 1990s, the Lord Chancellor's Department decided to ...

of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison.

Appeal

In April 2008, the Court of Appeal judges dismissed a challenge by Ibrahim, Omar, Mohammed and Osman to their convictions. In December 2014, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

rejected an appeal lodged in 2008 by Ibrahim, Omar and Mohammed claiming that their rights were breached in the 'safety interviews' after their arrests.

Background

Motives

Trial and sentence

Appeal

See also

References

External links