LONDON, Jan 19: A prosecutor on Monday accused three British Muslims of scouting out potential targets on behalf of suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters on London’s transit system in 2005.

The three defendants denied the charges, pleading not guilty in front of jurors at London’s Kingston Crown Court.

Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, are being retried on a charge of conspiring to cause explosions with the bombers who blew themselves up aboard three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005.

Prosecution lawyer Neil Flewitt said in opening statements on Monday that the three defendants had “conducted hostile reconnaissance of potential targets” during a visit to London seven months before the transit attacks.

The 2005 attacks were the deadliest on London since World War II, killing 52 commuters as well as the four suicide bombers -- Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain.

Prosecutors said the three men on trial had travelled with Hussain on Dec 16, 2004, from their northern English home town of Leeds to London, where they visited tourist sights including the London Eye Ferris wheel, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium.

Flewitt said the two-day visit was a reconnaissance trip, “an important first step in what was, by then, a settled plan to cause explosions in the UK”.

He said the defendants did not take part directly in the attacks but helped the bombers prepare “an appalling act of terrorism.”

Flewitt said the three men “were part of a plot that led ultimately and tragically to the events of the 7th July 2005.”

He said the defendants shared the “radical ideology” of the bombers, who left videotaped messages in which they claimed to be motivated by Britain’s involvement in the invasion of Iraq and other perceived attacks on the Muslim world.

The prosecution said the suspects’ computers contained evidence of searches for sites related to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Flewitt said the defendants had attended meetings at the Iqra Bookshop in Leeds, where the bombers also gathered.

The defendants — the only people charged over the attacks — have acknowledged knowing the bombers, but said they were not aware of the bomb plot. They have said the trip to London was a social outing.

They are being tried a second time, after the jury at their first trial last year failed to reach a verdict.—AP