An Eritrean-born man accused of masterminding four attempted bombings on July 21, 2005, in London denied today that he had plotted them with the men who killed 52 people in suicide attacks two weeks earlier.
Muktar Said Ibrahim rejected the suggestion in an exchange with the lawyer for one of his co-defendants - the first time it has been alleged in a British court that the two waves of attacks were part of a single plan.
Lawyer Stephen Kamlish said Ibrahim had been in Pakistan at the same time as Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the four young British Muslims who carried out the deadly suicide attacks in London on July 7, 2005.
"Has there been any discussion between you and them on how to make effective bombs to start a bombing campaign in this country, the first of which was 7/7, the second of which was going to be 21/7?" the BBC quoted Kamlish as asking.
Ibrahim, who has lived in Britain since 1990, said: "No".
Ibrahim and five others are on trial over what the prosecution calls an "extremist Muslim plot". The six African-born Muslims deny conspiracy to murder, and Ibrahim has said his plan was to build fake bombs intended only to scare.
In a surprise twist, his account was challenged when one of his co-accused, Manfo Asiedu, broke ranks and asserted through his lawyer Kamlish that the plot was meant to kill.
The defendant insisted he had never met Khan or Tanweer and had learnt his explosive-making skills from a video downloaded from the Internet.
Londoners shaken by the July 7, 2005 attacks - the first suicide bombings by Islamists in Western Europe - were rocked again two weeks later by the apparent attempt to replicate them on a similar set of targets, three underground trains and a bus.
No one was hurt as prosecutors say the devices failed to detonate properly.