Court scuffle as soldier’s killers jailed
Two cold-blooded Muslim extremists wanted to die in a hail of bullets but face life in jail instead A Muslim fanatic who was told he would die in prison for murdering Fusilier Lee Rigby fought with guards and hurled abuse at a judge at the Old Bailey yesterday.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, hacked the young soldier to death after running him down in a car outside Woolwich Barracks in southeast London last May.
Adebolajo was given a whole-life tariff while his younger accomplice will serve a minimum of 45 years before he is considered for parole.
The men shouted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) in the dock and fought with nine security guards at the start of sentencing.
The judge, Justice Sweeney, told them: ‘‘You were radicalised and each became an extremist, espousing a cause and views which, as has been said elsewhere, are a betrayal of Islam and of the peaceful Muslim communities who give so much to our country.’’
Adebolajo screamed in reply: ‘‘It is not a betrayal of Islam, you don’t know anything about Islam.’’ Adebowale shouted: ‘‘I swear by Allah: Britain, America will never have any safety.’’
Guards struggled to control the men as they lashed out, shouting obscenities just feet from where Fusilier Rigby’s family were sitting in court.
Adebolajo, who kissed the Koran when he entered the dock, was wrestled to the floor, handcuffed and carried headfirst downstairs to the cells as he screamed: ‘‘You are breaking my arm.’’
Adebowale was also wrestled from the dock while continuing to shout ‘‘Allahu akbar’’.
Sweeney said the killers had hoped to be shot by armed police so they would become martyrs and each gain a place in paradise.
‘‘Neither of you, I am sure, has any real insight into the enormity of what you did, nor any genuine remorse for it either, only regret that you did not succeed in your plan to be shot dead,’’ he added.
The judge said he was sure that the murder was committed for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause and was a terrorist attack.
Sweeney had delayed the sentencing until after a ruling last week found that whole-life sentences could be used by British judges.
David Gottlieb, in mitigation for Adebolajo, warned that a whole-life tariff would turn the murderers into martyrs.
He said that the killer was ‘‘not so deprived of all human dignity that he has no hope of atonement’’.
Adebolajo believed that the murder was commanded by God.
He said he intended to die and remains of the view that he should be put to death’’, Gottlieb added.
Abbas Lakha, QC, in mitigation for Adebowale said that ‘‘the demand for just punishment and retribution will be served by a sentence with a minimum term rather than a whole-life tariff’’.
A large crowd of protesters, including military veterans, waited for the verdict outside the court with some carrying portable gallows and Union flags. Three people were arrested. When Adebowale and Adebolajo were led into the dock of Court Two there was the sound of banging in support from the cells below and the singing of an Islamic song.
A demonstrator holds a picture of murdered soldier Lee Rigby during a protest outside the Old Bailey courthouse in London where two British Muslim converts were sentenced for hacking Rigby to death in broad daylight on a London street.
Michael Adebolajo, left, and Michael Adebowale hacked Lee Rigby to death after running him down in a car outside Woolwich Barracks in southeast London last May.
Adebolajo, from Romford, Essex, and Adebowale, from Greenwich, south-east London, had been brought up in Britain as Christians by their Nigerian parents.
Adebowale, who now calls himself Ismail Ibn Abdullah, offered no evidence in his defence during his trial in December.
Adebolajo, who said he loved al Qaeda, claimed that he and Adebowale, were ‘‘soldiers of Allah’’ and had carried out the killing as revenge for abuse of Muslims abroad. They chose Fusilier Rigby as their victim because he was wearing a Help for Heroes hooded top and they assumed he was a soldier.