Your warned of jihadi nut
JAILED TERROR ‘MUSKETEER’ HAD PREVIOUS
JAILED “Three Musketeer” terror plotter Mohibur Rahman was once described as a “good role model” by mentor hate preacher Anjem Choudary.
Last week Rahman, 33, was jailed for life with three others for plotting a “Lee Rigbystyle” terrorist attack to murder members of the police or military using a pipe bomb and meat cleaver.
But we can reveal Rahman has been on the radar of the security services for at least seven years following his release on licence after an earlier conviction for terror offences in 2012.
In April 2013, the Daily Star Sunday exclusively told how the Stoke-on-Trent-born extremist had his five-year jail term for having al-Qaida magazines featuring bomb-making instructions – handed down in February 2012 – reduced to four-and-a-half years by judges.
Rahman was arrested in 2010 after travelling to meet a group of men convicted of plotting an attack on the London Stock Exchange.
Speaking at the time, Choudary, who previously admitted teaching six of the nine-man bomb plot gang, including Rahman, praised him as an “upstanding” member of the community and a “good role model”.
But Patrick Mercer, a former Shadow Minister for Homeland Security, speaking in 2013, warned of the dangers upon releasing Rahman. He told us: “I think it is curious that someone like Mohibur Rahman has not had his freedom made public.
“Surely that’s in the best interest of everyone in this country.”
Last week, the Old Bailey heard that Rahman was planning an atrocity when he was arrested last August, with Naweed Ali, 29, Khobaib Hussain, 25, both from Birmingham, and Tahir Aziz, 38, of Stoke.
Officers found the gang, who called themselves the “Three Musketeers” in a messaging group, in possession of a bag of weapons, including a pipe bomb, an air pistol and a meat cleaver.
And last week it was revealed the so-called Musketeers even went to meet firebrand cleric Choudary in May last year, while he was on bail awaiting trial. ‘UK IS A JOKE’: War veteran Alan Duncan