Jailed, love rat terrorist and partner he met online
A TERRORIST love rat who seduced a chemist he met through a Muslim dating website into helping him plot a bombing campaign was jailed with his lover for a total of 26 years yesterday. Munir Mohammed, 36, wooed pharmacist Rowaida El-Hassan with Islamic State videos after they met via SingleMuslim.com.
The philanderer, who already had two wives, promised to marry the divorced mother- of-two, 33, as he used her to find out how to make bombs and the poison ricin.
Police believe he could have been ‘just days’ from carrying out an atrocity after using Facebook to contact an IS commander.
Following a bomb recipe from a YouTube video also used by Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi, Mohammed had assembled two of the three components.
If it wasn’t for the Sudanese refugee’s poor English, he might have made a bomb, but when buying the final ingredient he bought the wrong type of nail varnish remover – acetone-free instead of with acetone.
The pair’s toxic love story began in January 2016 when El-Hassan posted a plea for a lover who can ‘teach me new things and inspire me’ on the dating site. Mohammed responded, claiming to be a British geophysicist looking for a wife, and El-Hassan was flattered by his attention.
An expert in chemicals, she had a pharmacy masters’ degree from University College, London, had worked for British pharmacies and managed a chain of chemists in Sudan.
The day after she signed her divorce papers, Mohammed sent her the first of a series of IS videos. Despite only meeting him three times during their 12-month relationship, El-Hassan was intoxicated by his talk of martyrdom. But then he revealed that he already had two wives.
She also learnt that he was not a British scientist, but a fraudster working in a ready meals factory in Burton- on-Trent. Despite his lies, El-Hassan refused to leave Mohammed, who lived in a cramped Home
‘Deadly attack on innocent people’
Office hostel for asylum seekers. It also emerged that the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, Margaret Beckett tried to help Mohammed get asylum after he arrived here illegally in a lorry in January 2014.
Yesterday at the Old Bailey he was jailed for life with a minimum of 14 years, while El-Hassan was jailed for 12 years and given an extended fiveyear licence. They were convicted in January of preparing terrorist acts.
Judge Michael Topolski QC told her: ‘You have turned your back on all the advantages and benefits made available to you.
‘And in a space of less than 12 months, became deeply committed to assist him in carrying out a deadly attack on innocent people.’
The judge told Mohammed: ‘ You decided to plan an attack on the country in which you were seeking asylum. For this plan you needed help. You found that help on the website SingleMuslim.com.’