No legal aid for 7/7 suicide bombers

TRAGIC . . . Oldhamer David Foulkes was killed in the London atrocities

RELATIVES of the July 7 suicide bombers have had two legal aid applications rejected for their upcoming inquests.

The Ministry of Justice said the two applications did not meet the criteria for public funding for their lawyers.

It also said the bombers’ families cannot appeal against the refusal.

The Government has already agreed that legal aid will be offered to the families of the four bombers’ 52 innocent victims as well as survivors of the attacks.

The inquests for those who died in the 2005 London bombings are expected to be held at the end of this year.

David Foulkes (22), from Austerlands, was caught in one of four bombs detonated that day as he made his way to meet a friend at Edgware Road. The former Hulme Grammar and Oldham Sixth Form College student had recently started work in media sales for the Guardian newspaper.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Ministers have refused the applications as they did not consider that the published exceptional funding criteria were met.”

Relatives of two of the suicide bombers were legally represented at an earlier pre–inquest hearing on February 25 — although it is understood there had been no legal aid application from them at that stage.

Human rights lawyer Imran Khan appeared on behalf of Hasina Patel, the widow of plot mastermind Mohammad Sidique Khan (30) and the parents of Hasib Hussain (18).

He told the hearing that he recognised the anxiety of the victims’ relatives about the inquests and said he had “no application to be made for funding.”

Suicide bombers Khan, Hussain, Shehzad Tanweer, all aged 22, and Jermaine Lindsay (19) met at Luton Rail Station on the morning of July 7, 2005.

They took a train to King’s Cross in London, then separated to carry out their deadly missions. Within three minutes of 8.50am, Tanweer detonated his bomb at Aldgate, Khan set his device off at Edgware Road and Lindsay blew himself up between King’s Cross and Russell Square. Hussain detonated his device on board the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square at 9.47am. As well as killing themselves and 52 others, the bombers injured some 700 people.

Coroner Lady Justice Hallett will decide their format, including whether the bombers’ inquests should be heard along with those of their victims, at a three-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London next week.

They are likely to take place at the Royal Courts of Justice, in October.