First all-female terror cell suspects in the dock
BRITAIN’S first all-female alleged terror cell appeared in court yesterday charged with plotting to hack people to death in Westminster.
Rizlaine Boular, 21, who was shot and wounded by police when she was arrested, stood in the dock with her mother Mina Dich, both in burkas with full face veils.
Judge Emma Arbuthnot asked Boular and her mother, 43, to lift their veils so she could see their eyes.
They were joined in the dock by Khawla Barghouthi, 20, who wore a traditional headscarf and glasses.
All three are charged with conspiracy to murder and with the preparation of acts of terrorism.
Flanked by police, they made a brief appearance at London’s Westminster magistrates court.
Judge Arbuthnot, the chief magistrate, said: “On the face of it, there was a plan to attack one or more members of the public in the Westminster area and weapons had been purchased.” Boular was shot and injured when police stormed Bargouthi’s home in Willesden, north London, on April 27.
Barghouthi was detained in the raid while Dich was arrested in Kent.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the shooting.
The three women were remanded in custody and will appear at the Old Bailey next Friday.
Boular, of Clerkenwell, central London, Dich, of Lambeth, south London, and Barghouthi are charged with preparing terrorist acts between April 11 and 28.
They are also charged with conspiracy to murder “a person or persons unknown” between the same dates.