Mum shopped Whitehall suspect
AN alleged terrorist bombmaker was arrested with three knives 250 yards from Downing Street 24 hours after his mother phoned police, a court heard yesterday.
Khalid Mohammed Omar Ali, 27, was stopped by armed police officers in Whitehall who found three blades he had allegedly bought from a Wilko store hours earlier.
A magistrates court was told how he purchased the kitchen knives at 12pm in Ealing then travelled by Tube and foot before being arrested at 2.20pm on April 27.
Police swooped when Ali was just 100 yards from the spot where Khalid Masood knifed PC Keith Palmer to death in the Westminster Bridge terror attack on March 22.
Armed officers found Ali carrying a knife in each jacket pocket and a third tucked into the front of his trousers, it was said. Ali – who denies the charges – told police he was carrying the weapons in self-defence.
The Somali-born electrician insisted that he only wanted to speak to leaders and ‘decision-makers’ to ‘deliver a message’, it was alleged at Westminster Magistrates Court.
Ali, of North London, is also accused of involvement in making explosives in Afghanistan after allegedly joining terror groups in 2012.
Handcuffed for his first court appearance yesterday, he refused legal representation and said he did not ‘recognise the charges’.
Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to three terrorism charges. Ali was remanded in custody until May 19.