British murder suspect Michael Adebowale ‘will likely be tried as a terrorist’

MICHAEL Adebowale appeared in a London court yesterday charged with the killing of a British soldier last week. The prosecutor said Mr Adebowale would be tried as a terrorist.

The development came a day after Kenyan authorities said the British national had been released from custody in 2010 on the advice of the British High Commission.

Mr Adebowale was charged late on Wednesday with the murder of Lee Rigby, a serving soldier, in Woolwich in southeast London on May 22. He also faces a charge of possessing a firearm, a 9.4mm revolver, with intent to cause others to believe that violence would be used.

Prosecutor Bethan David told the court the alleged offence fell under the scope of terrorism legislation. Looking dazed and limping slightly, Mr Adebowale appeared in handcuffs in the glass-fronted dock at Westminster Magistrate’s Court. Security in the court was tightened after hundreds of far-right supporters staged anti-Muslim protests in London at the weekend.

Mr Adebowale did not enter a plea, as is normal at this stage under British law. He was arrested at the scene along with another man, Michael Adebolajo. Both men were shot by police and taken to hospital where they stayed under armed guard until released into custody.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack “a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country”, and vowed that Britain would never give in to terrorism in any of its forms.

Britain’s authorities face questions about what they knew about the activities of the two suspects. Kenyan lawyer Wycliffe Makasembo, who in 2010 represented Mr Adebolajo, said on Wednesday the suspect was freed from arrest in Kenya on the recommendation of the British High Commission.

The two were arrested in Kenya for allegedly trying to join an Islamist militant group.

Mr Makasembo said Mr Adebolajo was arrested in the tourist town of Lamu, where Kenyan antiterrorism police detained him and six others when they tried to travel north to Somalia in a speedboat.

They were suspected of attempting to go and train with the al-Qaedalinked Islamist militant group alShabaab in Somalia, and were presented in a court in Mombasa, south of Lamu.

Mr Makasembo said the British diplomatic mission in Nairobi “gave a clean bill of health, that Michael Adebolajo (had) no criminal record or any connection with any criminal or terrorist organisation in the world”. Reuters