(ANSA) - A key suspect in the failed July bomb attacks on London has arrived back in the UK following his extradition from Rome on Thursday. Anti-terror police arrested Hamdi Issac for attempted murder on his landing at a Royal Air Force base in west London, shortly after 1:30pm local time.
Issac, also known as Osman Hussain, is accused of trying to blow himself up on a metro train near Shepherd's Bush station on July 21.
He has been taken to Paddington Green police station in central London, where he will be formally charged with suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and alleged offences under the Explosive Substances Act 1883, a statement by Scotland Yard said.
He will appear before Bow Street Magistrates Court, sitting in the high-security Belmarsh complex, on Friday morning, according to British press reports. Italian police arrested the Ethiopian-born Briton at his brother's flat in Rome on July 29 and he was held in the capital's high-security Rebbibia jail until his departure for the UK.
Italy's highest court dismissed his final appeal against extradition last week.
Issac's Italian lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa, had argued that the emotionally charged nature of the case meant her client was unlikely to receive a fair trial in London. Issac, 27, is expected to stand trial in London on November 11, along with four others arrested for the July 21 attacks.
The incidents caused no deaths or injuries but threw London into panic, in part because they came exactly two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people in the British capital.
Shortly after British detectives escorted the suspect from jail on Thursday morning, his Italian lawyer reiterated Issac's claim that he had not intended to harm anyone. "I last saw him two days ago in prison. He told me he is now hoping for a fair trial, one that proves his backpack did not contain explosives intended to kill," Sonnessa told reporters.
According to evidence presented in the first extradition hearing, the rucksacks used in the attacks contained gunpowder, corn-flour and two homemade explosives. Issac said he was given a backpack by another of the bombers, who acted as a ringleader in the action. He said he knew it contained explosives and nails but said he only wanted to scare passengers with a loud noise.
He said the idea was to set off the device and then leave the rucksack with the bag of nails for police to find, as a demonstration of authorities' inability to guarantee security.
He told British and Italian investigators his action was a protest against anti-Muslim feeling in Britain after the July 7 bombings. Issac's handover on Thursday took place amid tight security.
He arrived at Rome's Ciampino airport at midday in a six-car police convoy and departed almost immediately on a charter plane. Maximum security was also in place at Northolt air base. The extradition was among the first in Italy to be carried out under the European Arrest Warrant. The new system came into force in Italy earlier this year as part of a Europe-wide bid to speed up extradition, which sometimes took years under the old procedure.
Despite initial concern in Britain that Italy was dragging its heels, Issac's extradition was completed well within the 90-day deadline. The process was accelerated following a decision by Rome prosecutors to shelve their own investigation into Issac for suspected links with an international terror network. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu on Thursday said the swift extradition had "put a definitive stop to uninformed speculation in the British press over delays."
