Just days after Michael Adebolajo and his 22-year-old accomplice, Michael Adebowale, butchered an innocent soldier to death on the streets of Woolwich, London, it was discovered that one of the suspects had been held in another country on suspicions of terrorism.
Kenyan police say that Adebolajo was held in Kenya in 2010 on suspicion of seeking to train with an al-Qaeda-linked group in Somalia.
The Nairobi government initially said Adebolajo had never visited Kenya. But on Sunday, Boniface Mwaniki, head of Kenya’s anti-terrorism police, said Adebolajo was arrested in November 2010 and deported to Britain.
“He was arrested with a group of five others trying to travel to Somalia to join militant group al Shabaab,” he told Reuters.
Suspicion that the attack was an act of terror was confirmed when the now infamous video of Adebolajo with bloodied hands hit the internet. In it, he explains that he killed 25-year-old Afghan war veteran Lee Rigsby in retaliation.
“The reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers.
And this British soldier is one. It is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting until you leave us alone.”
Currently, both suspects are being held in a guarded hospital after being shot and arrested last week. They have yet to be charged.
We’ll keep you updated on the latest.
SOURCE: Reuters
