Couple on terror plot charge met on Muslim dating site
A COUPLE plotted an Isil-inspired attack on Britain with a home-made bomb or deadly ricin poison after meeting on a dating website, a court has heard.
Would-be “lone wolf” Munir Mohammed volunteered for a “new job in the UK”, in Facebook communications with a man he believed was an Isil commander, jurors were told.
He had allegedly enlisted the help of pharmacist Rowaida El-Hassan, drawing on her knowledge of what chemicals were needed to make a bomb.
At the time of his arrest last December, Mohammed had two of the three components for TATP explosives and instruction manuals on how to make explosives, mobile phone detonators, and ricin, the Old Bailey in London heard.
The pair, of Sudanese origin, had met through a dating website called singlemuslim.com. On the site, Mohammed described himself as a British citizen from Sudan who was looking for a wife and partner to have children with.
El-Hassan, who graduated from University College London, referred to having a Masters degree in pharmacy in her profile. She said: “I am looking for a very simple, honest and straightforward man who fears Allah before anything else.”
The pair had a “rapidly formed emotional attachment and a shared ideology” and by the spring of 2016 were in regular contact on WhatsApp, jurors heard.
As well as extremist views and videos, they shared arguments, jokes and every-day concerns, such as Mohammed’s “precarious” immigration status, jurors heard. El-Hassan also gave Mohammed money and supported him with other issues, including car insurance, the court heard.
In August last year, Mohammed was allegedly put in touch via Facebook with a man he believed was an Isil commander, known as Abubakr Kurdi.
He pledged allegiance to Kurdi and offered to participate in “a new job in the UK”, said to mean an act of terrorism, jurors heard.
Mohammed (36), of Derby, and El-Hassan (33), of north-west London, deny preparing terrorist acts between November 2015 and December 2016. (© Daily Telegraph London)