Terrorism case jury sets record

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A jury in a terrorism trial has set a record for the longest ever verdict deliberations.

The seven men and five women in the case of an alleged fertiliser bomb plot began considering their verdicts on 16 March after a year of evidence.

On Wednesday, the jury passed the previous hourly record of a fraud case which had 21 days of deliberations.

Seven British men deny charges of a conspiracy to construct a homemade fertiliser bomb to detonate in the UK.

On the morning of 20 April, Sir Michael Astill, the trial judge, told the jurors that he would accept majority verdicts on each charge faced by the defendants.

He said he would accept majorities of either 11-1 or 10-2 if they were unable to reach unanimous verdicts on all the charges.

Since then, the jury have sat for three further days at the Old Bailey and returned for a 24th day on Wednesday morning, thereby breaking the record.

The previous record for the longest jury deliberation was set in May 2001 when another Old Bailey jury considered a complex timeshare fraud.

Ammonium nitrate

During the massive terrorism trial which began in March 2006, the prosecution said the seven defendants had been allegedly planning to build a bomb using 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser.

The ammonium nitrate was discovered in a self-storage unit in west London early in 2004.

The trial was told that some of the defendants were allegedly heard discussing targets including the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, the Ministry of Sound nightclub in central London, and electrical and gas installations.

Omar Khyam, 25, Shujah Mahmood, 20, Waheed Mahmood, 35, and Jawad Akbar, 23, all from Crawley, West Sussex, Anthony Garcia, 25, of Barkingside, east London, Nabeel Hussain, 22, of Horley, Surrey, and Salahuddin Amin, 32, of Luton, Bedfordshire, all deny conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain deny a further charge of possessing ammonium nitrate for the purposes of terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing another substance for the purpose of terrorism.