Westminster suspect on murder bid charge
THE 29-year-old Sudanese-born man police have been questioning about last Tuesday’s ‘terror attack’ was last night charged with attempting to murder members of the public and police officers by driving a car through crowds in Westminster.
Salih Khater, from Birmingham, will appear before Westminster magistrates tomorrow facing two counts of attempted murder, following the incident outside the Houses of Parliament. Khater, a British citizen, allegedly drove his Ford Fiesta into pedestrians before deliberately swerving towards police officers. He then crashed into barriers outside the Palace of Westminster and was arrested.
‘Due to the methodology, iconic location and the alleged targeting of civilians and police officers, the CPS are treating this case as terrorism,’ the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
After the incident, it emerged that the father of the suspect had died last November and one of his brothers shortly afterwards.
Now friends have told The Mail on Sunday that Khater’s aunt – his father’s sister with whom he was close – also died recently and that he had learned his mother had been admitted to hospital in Sudan with a serious illness.
Khater had been planning a trip to his homeland, which he had not visited for a decade since arriving in Britain as an asylum seeker.
He had recently been granted British citizenship and collected his UK passport last Monday.
Friends said he drove to London on Monday night in readiness to get a travel visa from the Sudanese embassy on Tuesday morning.