Jihadist drew up plots for tourist massacres after jury set him free
A JIHADIST who plotted massacres at busy London tourist hotspots has been convicted of terror offences little more than a year after he was cleared of a sword attack on police outside Buckingham Palace.
Former Uber driver Mohiussunnath Chowdhury was driven by “dreams of martyrdom” as he planned gun, knife and van onslaughts on targets including Madame Tussauds, the gay Pride parade and an open-top sightseeing bus last year.
But the 28-year-old chicken shop worker was unwittingly confiding his plans to undercover police posing as like-minded extremists who had him under surveillance during a five-month operation.
Preparing for his atrocity, he lifted weights, practised stabbing and rehearsed beheading as well as booking shooting range training and trying to acquire a real gun, his trial at Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Chowdhury, who was cleared in 2018 of slashing police with a sword outside the Queen’s London residence while shouting “Allahu Akbar”, had bragged about deceiving the jury in that trial.
He remained emotionless as jurors found him guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation of
terrorist acts, collecting information likely to be useful to someone preparing an act of terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications.
The second charge related to a document titled ‘‘guidance for doing just terror operations’’ on his phone which included instructions on how to kill people with knives.
His sister Sneha Chowdhury, 25, cried as she was convicted of one count of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism and cleared of another count of the same charge.
Jurors deliberated for eight hours and 39 minutes before returning their verdicts. They will be sentenced later.