London Suspects Remain Jailed

3 Charged With Attempted Murder In Failed Bombings, Held Until Nov.

(AP)  Three of the four main suspects in the failed July 21 London bombings appeared at a high-security court Monday charged with attempting to murder passengers on London's transport system.

Ibrahim Muktar Said, 27, Ramzi Mohammed, 23, and Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, were ordered to remain in custody until Nov. 14 on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, possessing or making explosives and conspiracy to use explosives. They face life in prison if convicted.

Said was accused of trying to detonate a bomb on a bus in east London. Mohammed is suspected of attempting to bomb the Oval station subway train, while Omar allegedly targeted an underground train near Warren Street station.

The men spoke only to confirm their names.

The fourth main suspected attacker, known both as Osman Hussain and as Hamdi Issac, was arrested in Rome and is being held there on international terrorism charges. British authorities are seeking his extradition.

Suspected Islamic militant Haroon Rashid Aswat also appeared in court Monday following a U.S. request for his extradition.

His lawyer says Aswat has nothing to hide, that he denies "any suggestion that he's a terrorist" and that he will challenge extradition.

Aswat was deported from Zambia on Sunday and arrested on a U.S. warrant accusing him of organizing a training camp in Oregon to prepare people to fight in Afghanistan. A British judge ordered him to remain in custody until a further hearing on Thursday.

The arrest of Aswat, a British citizen of Indian descent, comes as British prosecutors said they would consider treason charges against any Islamic extremists who express support for terrorism.

The U.S. warrant accuses Aswat of conspiring with others between October 1999 and April 2000 to set up a camp in Bly, Ore., aimed at training and equipping individuals to "fight jihad in Afghanistan," police said in a statement.

Aswat, 30, had been detained in Zambia since July 20, where he was questioned about 20 phone calls reportedly made on his South African cell phone with some of the bombers responsible for the July 7 transit attacks in London that killed 52 people and the four bombers. British newspaper reports quoting intelligence sources there have in recent days played down the possibility Aswat masterminded the London bombings.

He was deported Sunday to Britain, said Zambian Home Affairs Secretary Peter Mumba.

Aswat is one of two associates of the Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri who are referred to but not named or charged in a 2002 indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Seattle against a Muslim convert from the area, officials have said. The other is Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, who was convicted of weapons violations in Sweden in 2003.