Teen obsessed by Woolwich murder ‘arrested on his way to behead another soldier’
A TEENAGER who idolised Lee Rigby’s extremist killers was caught with a hammer and knife on his way to behead a soldier, a court heard yesterday.
Muslim convert Brustholm Ziamani, 19, had already been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences but was released on bail to roam the streets.
Just weeks later he was found in East London with a 12-inch knife and a pick hammer wrapped in an Islamic flag after boasting to his ex-girlfriend how he going to ‘kill soldiers and government people’ in ‘another Lee Rigby’.
Following his arrest Ziamani is said to have laughed about the Rigby atrocity and later calmly told prison officers: ‘I was on my way to kill a British soldier at an army barracks. I was going to behead the soldier and hold his
‘Hold his head in the air’
head in the air so my friend could take a photograph.’ He claimed he ‘loved’ Michael Adebolajo and once handed out leaflets with the murderer who hacked Fusilier Rigby to death outside Woolwich barracks in May 2013, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.
Ziamani, said to be obsessed with the video war game Call of Duty, was initially arrested on June 27 last year at his home in Camberwell, South London after trawling websites on martyrdom and researching ‘military targets’, it was alleged.
Officers found a chilling five-page letter that the Muslim convert had written for his Christian family he had turned his back on, boasting that he planned to ‘do a 9/11 and 7/7 and Woolwich all in one day’.
He warned: ‘ You want war you got it. British soldiers heads will be removed and burned, u cannot defeat the Muslims. We love to die the way you love to live.’
He wrote to his ‘beloved parents’ saying he had become a ‘changed person’ weeks after converting to Islam, adding: ‘I will wage war against the British government on this soil, the British Government will have a taste ov there (sic) own medicine they will be humiliated.
This is ISIB, Islamic States of Ireland and Britain.’ He added: ‘ HAHAHAHAHAHA Looool [laugh out loud]!! Lee Rigby is burnin in hell. Woow I’m dying good for him. This is what you get for voting Cameron and democracy. My brothers who are Lee Rigby’s killers are in prison getting food, clothes and shelter and its being paid for by Lee Rigby’s family. HAHA.’
Police found he had spent hours looking at the London Irish Rifles Association in Camberwell and Lewisham Army Cadets in Blackheath and had allegedly posted a series of Facebook rants about the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.
Yet officers released him on bail and just three weeks later on August 19 he was stopped by police by chance in Whitechapel, East London. The court heard efforts by the Government’s counter-terrorism programme Prevent to engage with Ziamani failed as he told officers it was ‘too late’ to stop him being radicalised.
While on bail, jurors were told, he continued to post online messages, saying: ‘You can sit at home and play Call of Duty or you can come out here and respond to the real call of duty… the choice is yours’.
On July 25 last year he allegedly wrote: ‘It’s a shame Hitler never finished his job’. Yesterday his exgirlfriend told how the ‘sporty and adventurous’ youth who enjoyed parkour – also known as free running – changed weeks after they first met through Facebook in March last year.
She described how Ziamani had ditched his jeans for Islamic robes and ranted about wanting to die a martyr and referred to Adebolajo as a ‘legend,’ she claimed.
Frightened, she broke off their relationship but he turned up at her home hours before his arrest in August to show her a black rucksack containing a knife and a ham- mer, saying he was planning ‘another Lee Rigby’, she said.
The 17-year-old girl said: ‘I asked why he had these and he said he was planning to kill a soldier or a member of the Government. He said, “Me and the brothers are planning a terrorist attack”.’
Ziamani also showed her videos named ‘ISIS Terrorist Post Hollywood Style Killing Spree’, it was said. Detectives discovered Ziamani had researched how to get to France via the Eurotunnel, despite strict bail conditions. He also told officers he admired radical preachers including Abu Hamza and Anjem Choudary.
Annabel Darlow, prosecuting, said he saw Adebolajo as a ‘hero and role model’. She added: ‘His hatred of non-believers, extreme beliefs and interest in violent jihad began to crystallize into a plan to attack a member of the British military forces.’
Ziamani denies planning a terrorist attack. The trial continues.