Man in court over plot to kill May
A 20-YEAR-OLD man appeared in court yesterday charged with plotting to assassinate British Prime Minister Theresa May in a bomb and knife attack.
Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman is accused of planning an explosion outside May’s Downing Street office and then trying to enter the building with a suicide vest and a knife in a bid to kill her.
Prosecutor Mark Carroll said Rahman had planned to detonate an improvised explosive device at the Downing Street gates, then, in the ensuing chaos, try to enter the building with a view to trying to kill the prime minister.
He had planned to use a suicide vest, pepper spray and a knife, Carroll told the Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London.
Rahman allegedly carried out hostile reconnaissance of the area as part of his preparation.
He is charged with preparing terrorist acts and assisting another man, Mohammad Aqib Imran, to prepare separate terror acts.
He appeared in court alongside Imran, 21, who is accused of trying to join the Islamic State jihadist terror group by attempting to obtain a fake passport with a view to travelling to Libya.
The men were arrested on November 28.
Rahman spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.
He said he was of no fixed abode and his nationality was “Bangladeshi British. I’m Bangladeshi.” Imran said he was “Pakistani British”.
Their lawyers gave no indication of their plea on their first court appearance, so not-guilty pleas were formally registered.
They will appear again on December 20.
The court appearance came a day after Home Secretary Amber Rudd told parliament that 22 Islamist terror plots had been thwarted since the killing of a British soldier on a London street by two Islamist extremists in 2013.
MI5 head Andrew Parker told cabinet members yesterday that British intelligence had foiled nine terror plots in the past 12 months.
The disclosures about the charges came just hours after an official report into the Manchester terror attack revealed that the suicide bomber had been flagged for closer scrutiny by security services and that the atrocity could have been averted “had the cards fallen differently”.
MI5 investigators misinterpreted intelligence on Salman Abedi earlier this year and it was disclosed his case had been due to be discussed at a meeting scheduled for nine days after his May attack at the Manchester Arena.
Internal reviews into the police and MI5’s handling of the four terrorist attacks in Britain this year also revealed one of the London Bridge attackers had been under active investigation.