A would-be suicide bomber and his wife have been found guilty of planning an attack in London to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 7 July 2005 suicide attacks.
Mohammed Rehman, 25, who secretly wed Sana Ahmed Khan, 24, intended to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 7/7 atrocities with blasts that would have inflicted mass casualties in either Westfield shopping centre, west London, or the London Underground, the Old Bailey was told.
After three days of deliberations, a jury on Tuesday found the pair guilty of preparing an act of terrorism. Rehman was also convicted of possessing an article for terrorist purposes.
Using the alias “Silent Bomber” on Twitter, Rehman asked his followers in May for suggestions about which target to choose. “Westfield shopping centre or London underground?” Rehman asked. “Any advice would be appreciated greatly.” The post carried a link to an al-Qaida media release about the 7/7 bombings.
With £14,000 he obtained from his wife, he purchased 10kg of urea nitrate to construct an explosive device at his parents’ home in Reading and even filmed himself detonating a small charge in his back garden.
Rehman was said to have been only days away from assembling the bomb when he was arrested on 28 May by anti-terror police, after an undercover investigator spotted his tweet about potential targets.
Tony Badenoch QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the couple shared a “common interest” in violent, jihadi ideology and had repeatedly researched the history of the 7/7 bombers.
They had a keen interest in Islamic State and Rehman’s online research showed he “wished to play his own part”. One online post used a profile picture of Jihadi John.
The same day, he trawled YouTube for details about the London bombings and the “martyrdom” video of Shehzad Tanweer, one of the 7/7 bombers whom he referred to as his “beloved predecessor”. Rehman also told a Twitter user: “Why don’t you head to the London Underground on the 7th July if you got the balls.”
The undercover investigator engaged Rehman in a private conversation in which the defendant subsequently asked him “how dumb these Kuffar [non-Muslims] are lol”.
Rehman confided that he was preparing to die and asked the officer if he wanted to join him or go the “lone wolf route”. Jurors were told his intentions could not have been clearer when he tweeted: “Now I just make explosives in preparation for kuffar lol and when I’ve made the required amount I’ll be wearing them on my chest.”
When approached by police, Rehman fled to a nearby Co-op store where – despite trying to kick and punch his way out – he was detained by armed officers. He insisted there was nothing dangerous in his home, but searches recovered a hunting knife and chemicals for a bomb.
In a police interview, Rehman admitted making and testing explosives but denied intending to harm anyone. He claimed he had used Twitter to draw attention to himself in the hope he would be arrested and put in custody.
Khan, who studied at Greenwich University, refused to answer questions from police but admitted having conversations with Rehman about Isis and jihad. She denied knowing about his Twitter activities.
The couple had known each other for 10 years, but she kept their Islamic marriage a secret from her family as they did not approve of Rehman, who was divorced. Each of them lived with their own parents in Reading.
Both denied wrongdoing but refused to give evidence. Rehman and Khan showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out but she glanced up to the public gallery as they were led off to the cells.
Susan Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s counterterrorism division, said: “The pair had been very close to carrying out an attack, all they required was to purchase the chemicals to make a detonator. There is little doubt that, had Rehman and Ahmed Khan not been stopped when they were, they would have attempted to carry out an act of terrorism in London.”
Assistant chief constable Laura Nicholson, head of the south east counter-terrorism unit, said: “It is clear that Rehman and Khan shared a radical and violent extremist ideology. They actively accessed extremist material on the internet and used social media to develop and share their views as they prepared acts of terrorism.”
Assistant chief constable Marcus Beale, counter-terrorism lead for West Midlands police, said: “There’s no doubt Mohammed Rehman and Sana Khan were two such people and that the internet played a significant part in their radicalisation.”
During the trial, the court was read a letter sent by Rehman from prison to his wife’s parents. In it, he pleaded for forgiveness. He wrote: “What I would like to point out is the fact that you, her parents, had already made your minds up about me, not allowing a chance for us to meet, that perhaps you could made a genuine decision regarding my suitability for Sohni [Khan].
“You had your reasons to despise me without knowing me, but I dared not challenge them. Thus I was prepared to throw my life away, a future without Sohni was not one that I had planned.
“Now as you can see, she has also been dragged into this with me. But regardless of what you have seen or heard in the news, she’s completely innocent of the crimes she has been charged with, rather she was undermined by her association with me.”
The pair are due to be sentenced later this week. The suicide bombings that took place on the London Underground and bus network on 7 July 2005 killed 52 people; more than 770 were injured. It was the worst terrorist atrocity in the UK since the Lockerbie airline bombing in 1988.
The plot was one of seven that David Cameron has been briefed about by security officials as being inspired by Isis and foiled in the last year or so.
The prime minister referenced the multiple attempts linked to Isis to cause mass casualty attacks as part of his justification for military action against targets in Syria. One other criminal case following the disruption of the alleged plots has ended, and legal proceedings are expected in others.
UK Guardian
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