"It was satisfied that, at the time of the four applicants' initial police interviews, there had been an exceptionally serious and imminent threat to public safety, namely the risk of further attacks, and that this threat provided compelling reasons justifying the temporary delay in allowing the applicants' access to lawyers," a press release issued by the ECHR said.
The court added that the four convicts' right to fair trial was not breached either. The arrested have claimed that the statements they made in the absence of a lawyer during police interviews were later used against them during the trials.
On July 21, 2005, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, and Ramzi Mohammed were arrested on suspicion of attempting to explode four bombs in the London transport system. Another man, Ismail Abdulrahman, was detained later on account of providing assistance for the attack. The bombs failed to explode after they had been detonated.
The unsuccessful terror attempt came just two weeks after suicide attacks on the transport system in central London on July 7, 2005. Fifty-two people were killed in a total of four bomb explosions, three in London's Underground and one in a double-decker in London's Tavistock Square.
