Bomb suspect a doe-eyed Bambi, says ex-girlfriend

ROME - As a teenager, Hussain Osman was an ardent admirer of American culture, a big fan of hip-hop and liked dressing like a rapper and drinking beer on dates with his middle-class Italian girlfriend, she recalled yesterday.

Osman, 27, is wanted over the failed bomb attack at Shepherd's Bush Tube station on 21 July.

"We called him Bambi because of his doe-like black eyes and long, full eyelashes," she told La Repubblica newspaper, which gave her an assumed name, Murielle, to protect her privacy.

"We went to the disco together every Saturday afternoon. He had a fixation with America, it was his dream - the music, hip-hop."

Extradition proceedings for the London bombing suspect held in Italy were delayed yesterday after an investigating magistrate said that the court had not received full documentation from Britain.

As further details emerged of how Osman was tracked to Italy and arrested, another judge in Rome issued domestic charges against him. The impact on the extradition process remained unclear last night. Italian authorities said a definitive date for the main hearing is expected to be set later this week.

The Home Office said it was confident the proceedings - a test case for the recently introduced European arrest warrant - were "on track" and that Osman would be returned to face trial within the three-month time limit.

Osman's lawyer confirmed that her client had asked not to be extradited to Britain, preferring to remain in Italy, where he lived during the 1990s.

"Murielle", now aged 26, said she met the Ethiopian, also known as Hamdi Isaac, a decade ago among a crowd of teenage friends who used to hang out each afternoon after school on and around the walls next to Rome's Piazzale Flaminia square at the edge of the Villa Borghese park.

"He was not a suspicious character. I got a shock when I saw him on television," she said.

"My best friend introduced me to some friends of his. It was hard not to notice Hamdi because he was kind as well as good looking - the photographs handed out to the media don't do him justice."

Before leaving Italy to seek asylum in Britain, Osman gave few signs he would drift into the world of Osama Bin Laden's recruits, she added.

"He worshipped American rappers, Tupac, the Afro-American ghetto culture of the Bronx. He and his friends added the letter "g" to the end of their names, "g" for gangster, or rather "gangsta" as in "Gangsta Paradise", a successful song at the time, but Hamdi was not a violent person.

"He was a good person, he never mixed in bad company. If there was ever a brawl where we hung out he would always be a peacemaker. He enjoyed picking up girls, that is true, in that sense his religion didn't seem to get in his way.

"We knew he was a Muslim but he never talked to me about that, he had no problem going out with us non-Muslims ... friends who saw him in London two years later told me he forced his partner to wear a veil.

"Some said she was an Eritrean Christian he had convinced to convert. He used to come to Rome for holidays every now and again and we would see each other."

She added: "He went to London to obtain political asylum. In fact, I had to address my letters to a new name. In Rome he wasn't able to achieve anything whereas he said in London there was more to do.

"Basically he wanted to have fun, which is why it still seems strange that he should end up on the Tube with a fake bomb."

It emerged yesterday that Osman's real name is Hamdi Isaac and that he had also changed his country of birth from Ethiopia to Somalia when he moved from Italy to England in 1996, to help gain political refugee status and financial assistance.

In Rome, two investigating magistrates, Judges Franco Ionta and Pietro Saviotti, again interrogated Osman and his brother Remzi, who was also arrested on Friday. A third brother was arrested on Sunday.

The two Ethiopians were initially charged with using false passports, while Osman was also charged with membership of an international terrorist group.

Those charges were confirmed yesterday and are believed to be required in order for Osman to remain in prison.

Osman, who fled on a Eurostar service last Tuesday, was tracked to Italy using his mobile phone, which was being monitored by police and intelligence services in Britain using "triangulation methods".

Italian police sent tapes of his calls to London, where experts were able to confirm that the voice was that of Osman. According to reports in Italy, one of the calls was to Saudi Arabia. Phone checks led to Osman's arrest in the south Rome suburb of Tor Pignatarra.

He was arrested without a struggle after police apparently persuaded his brother to hand over the keys of his flat. Italian police said yesterday that they hoped Osman would be extradited soon.

Carlo De Stefano, the head of Italy's anti-terrorist police revealed that Osman had injured his thigh while allegedly making his escape from the scene of the Shepherd's Bush attempted attack. He is thought to have hurt it on a fence.

He said Osman, one of five brothers, appeared to be a member of an ad hoc group, rather than a structured organisation.

Detectives are still questioning 18 people arrested over the past week, including the three suspects for the 21 July attacks - Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, and Ramzi Muhammed, both arrested in North Kensington last Friday, and Yasin Omar, 21, arrested in Birmingham last Wednesday.

Mohammed's brother, Wahbi Mohammed, is also being questioned over the unexploded fifth bomb found two days after the attempted attacks.

More arrests are expected as police scour the country for anyone who may have helped the bombers.

Police have said they will take race into account when deciding which people to stop and search, despite fears among some Muslims that this could anger members of their community.

Cabinet minister Peter Hain insisted the government wanted to avoid provoking any backlash from Asian communities who might start sympathising with those committing terrorist acts.

"We can't have that. At the same time we have to be clear we are dealing with an entirely new phenomenon of worldwide suicide terrorism and you can't take any chances," he told BBC radio.

The government, working on new anti-terrorism laws, may consider extra passport checks after Italian police said Hamdi had travelled abroad by train from London after the failed attacks.

- INDEPENDENT and REUTERS