Lee Rigby’s killer: I was driven to do it by hate preacher
THE Muslim extremist who led the Woolwich terror attack has blamed hate preacher Anjem Choudary – released from prison on Friday – for inciting him to murder Lee Rigby.
Sources have told The Mail on Sunday that Michael Adebolajo, who hacked the off-duty soldier to death in South-East London in 2013, claims to be racked with guilt over his despicable crime and says he was inspired by Choudary’s twisted interpretation of the Koran.
Fusilier Rigby was murdered near the Royal Artillery Barracks by Michael Adebowale, 26, and attack mastermind Adebolajo, 33, who appeared on TV wielding the meat cleaver he had used to almost decapitate the soldier.
Both men were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life terms. Adebowale must serve at least 45 years before he is eligible for release.
Adebolajo is unlikely ever to be freed.
According to sources at the maximum security Frankland prison in County Durham, Muslim convert Adebolajo claims that he would never have killed Fusilier Rigby had it not been for Choudary’s brainwashing.
Choudary, 51, spent most of his time in jail at Frankland.
He was released on Friday after serving half of a five-anda-half-year sentence for inviting support for the IS terrorist group.
According to prison sources, Adebolajo broke down in tears as he claimed Choudary’s flawed interpretations of the so-called ‘Qital [killing] verses’ of the Koran inspired him to plot the attack on Rigby.
The insider quoted Adebolajo as saying: ‘It was Choudary’s reading of the verses, which talk of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, which justified attacking a British soldier in Britain.’
The prison source added that Adebolajo believed the hate preacher’s teachings had given him the religious justification for an attack on a British soldier because Britain was involved in conflicts in Muslim countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Choudary, from Ilford, East London, has been accused of radicalising other notorious terrorists in Britain, including Khuram Butt, 27, the ringleader of the attacks at London Bridge. He is also believed to have inspired Siddhartha Dhar, 35, who became an executioner for IS.
It was reported this weekend that Dhar, from Palmers Green, North London, had been killed in a drone strike carried out in Syria last year.
Adebolajo, from Nigeria, converted to Islam while studying at Greenwich University and joined Choudary’s banned group Al-Muhajiroun, rising through its ranks to become the preacher’s lieutenant.
Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of the inter-faith group Faith Matters, said: ‘Choudary is a very dangerous individual, who has radicalised a lot of people by just detaching their minds from reality.
‘I think that he should have served his full sentence before being released.’
At Choudary’s probation hostel, residents were said to be ‘very shocked’ by the new arrival in Room 310.
The preacher is said to be a solitary figure, shunning communal areas, and is subjected to random daily room checks.
One resident said: ‘Really, they should put him somewhere else. It’s not the right place to be.’
‘Choudary is a very dangerous individual’