Kenya: UK soldier killing suspect arrested in 2010
Lyn Rigby, mother of Drummer Lee Rigby, holding a teddy bear joins other family members as they look at floral tributes outside Woolwich Barracks left by well wishers as they visited the scene of the 25-year-old soldier's murder in Woolwich, south-east London, Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/John Stillwell, PA). UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES
Lyn Rigby, mother of Drummer Lee Rigby, holding a teddy bear joins other family members as they look at floral tributes outside Woolwich Barracks left by well wishers as they visited the scene of the 25-year-old soldier's murder in Woolwich, south-east London, Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/John Stillwell, PA). UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES
FILE - Michael Adebolajo, front, shouts slogans as Muslims march in London in a protest against the arrest of 6 people in anti-terror raids, in this Friday April 27, 2007 file photo. Adebolajo has been identified as one of the two men who attacked and killed a British soldier on a street in south London on Wednesday May 22 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file) MAGAZINES OUT
The mother of killed Drummer Lee Rigby, Lyn Rigby, centre, holds onto a teddy bear as she joins his stepfather Ian, and other family members looking at floral tributes outside Woolwich Barracks as they visited the scene of his murder in Woolwich, south-east London, Sunday May 26, 2013. Family members laid flowers at the Woolwich Barracks where the 25-year-old soldier of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Lee Rigby who was attacked and killed by two men in broad daylight Wednesday May 22, and where hundreds of floral tributes have been left by public well wishers. (AP Photo / John Stillwell, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES
Police search team leave the scene of a terror attack in Woolwich, southeast London, Thursday, May 23, 2013. A member of armed forces was attacked and killed by two men on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
In this undated image released Thursday May 23, 2013, by the British Ministry of Defence, showing Lee Rigby known as ?Riggers? to his friends, who is identified by the MOD as the serving member of the armed forces who was attacked and killed by two men in the Woolwich area of London on Wednesday. The Ministry web site included the statement "It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce that the soldier killed in yesterday's incident in Woolwich, South East London, is believed to be Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers." (AP Photo / MOD)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? A suspect in last week's savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 while apparently preparing to train and fight with al-Qaida-linked Somali militants, an anti-terrorism police official said Sunday.
Michael Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was then handed over to British authorities in the East African country, another Kenyan official said.
The information surfaced as London's Metropolitan Police said specialist firearms officers arrested a man Sunday suspected of conspiring to murder 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby. Police gave few details about the suspect, only saying he is 22 years old.
The arrest brought to nine the number of suspects who have been taken into custody regarding Rigby's horrific killing in London. Two have been released without charge, and one was released on bail pending further questioning. No one has been charged in the case.
The British soldier, who had served in Afghanistan, was run over, then stabbed with knives in the Woolwich area in southeast London on Wednesday afternoon as he was walking near his barracks.
Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are the main suspects in the killing and remained under armed guard in separate London hospitals after police shot them at the scene.
In 2010, Adebolajo was arrested with five others near Kenya's border with Somalia, Kenya's anti-terrorism police unit chief Boniface Mwaniki told The Associated Press. Police believed Adebolajo was going to work with Somali militant group al-Shabab.
A video clip from a local TV station appears to show Adebolajo speaking during a court hearing in the Kenyan city of Mombasa on Nov. 23, 2010. He says, "These people are mistreating us. We are innocent. Believe me," shortly before leaving the court with five other suspects.
Mwaniki said that Adebolajo was deported from Kenya after his arrest in 2010. Kenya's government spokesman said he was arrested under a different name, and taken to court before being handed to British authorities.
"Kenya's government arrested Michael Olemindis Ndemolajo. We handed him to British security agents in Kenya, and he seems to have found his way to London and mutated to Michael Adebolajo," spokesman Muthui Kariuki said. "The Kenyan government cannot be held responsible for what happened to him after we handed him to British authorities."
Kariuki said Adebolajo was traveling on a British passport, but he could not confirm if it was authentic.
When asked whether British security agents and embassy officials had handled Adebolajo in Kenya, a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a brief statement: "We can confirm a British national was arrested in Kenya in 2010. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided consular assistance as normal for British nationals." She did not elaborate and said she did not have information about what had happened to Adebolajo then.
Rigby's grieving family visited the scene of his killing in London on Sunday, pausing for a few moments in reflection and laying flowers to join the hundreds of floral tributes already left at the nearby Woolwich Barracks by well-wishers.
The soldier's gruesome slaying has horrified Britain, partly because it was captured by witnesses' cellphones. A video picked up by British media showed one of the suspects, with bloodied hands, making political statements and warning of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground behind him.
Hardline Muslim leaders say the man in the video was Adebolajo, and they have described him as an Islam convert who used to take part in London demonstrations organized by British radical group al-Muhajiroun. The group catapulted to notoriety after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by organizing an event to celebrate the airplane hijackers, and was banned in Britain in 2010.
More than 20 supporters of the group have been arrested over terrorism offenses, including a foiled plot to blow up central London nightclub Ministry of Sound and a bomb attack on London's Territorial Army base.
Abu Nusaybah, a friend of Adebolajo's, has asserted in a BBC interview that Adebolajo became withdrawn after he allegedly suffered abuse by Kenyan security forces during interrogation in prison there. Nusaybah was arrested by counter-terrorism police outside the BBC's London studios Friday night immediately after recording the interview, and police said Sunday his detention has been extended to May 31.
Anti-terrorism chief Mwaniki on Sunday rejected Nusaybah's allegations. Mwaniki said at the time there were no indications of torture or abuse, but that the unit would further investigate.
Mwaniki said dozens of foreign youth are arrested every year attempting to cross the Kenyan border to join al-Shabab, which claims to be fighting a jihad, or holy war, against the Somali government and African Union forces.
Al-Shabab controlled the Somali capital, Mogadishu from roughly 2007 to 2011. The group still dominates most of south central Somalia but has seen its territory reduced after military pushes by African Union and Somali forces.
According to an August U.S. State Department report on terrorism, al-Shabab continues to maintain training camps in southern Somalia for young recruits, including Americans who have traveled there from Somali communities in the United States.
The camps have churned out dozens of bombers who've launched attacks in and outside Somalia.
Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, mostly East African nationals and veterans from the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars.
British officials have been on the lookout for security threats originating from Somalia for some years.
In a speech in 2010, Jonathan Evans, then head of Britain's MI5 domestic security service, warned that "a significant number" of British residents were training in al-Shabab camps to fight in the insurgency there.
"I am concerned that it is only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al-Shabab," he said.
Meanwhile, London police said a man in his 20s was stabbed Sunday in the Woolwich area of London close to where Rigby was killed, momentarily rattling people in the area. But Scotland Yard said the stabbing was not related to terrorism or to Wednesday's slaying. A spokesman said the victim was not a soldier, and one man was arrested for assault.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, head of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command, said officers are pursuing CCTV, social media, forensic and intelligence leads in the Rigby investigation. He appealed for anyone who knew the two attackers to contact police with information.
British officials said Sunday they are also setting up a new terrorism task force to tackle radical preachers and extremism. Home Secretary Theresa May said the group will look at whether new powers and laws are needed to clamp down on religious leaders and organizations who promote extremist messages and who target potential recruits in British jails, schools and mosques.
___
Hui reported from London. Associated Press Producer Khaled Kazziha contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya
Associated Pressgrammy awards whitney houston autopsy dobie gray bruce springsteen grammy nominations lil boosie bobbi kristina brown
pwoods পোস্ট করেছে @ ৩:৩৬ PM
0টি মন্তব্য
Most of us would love to have naturally blonde hair. Can you imagine having a pretty shade of blonde without the expense of root touch-ups every few weeks? Well, we’ve put together a list of celebrities that were actually born blonde. Find out which of these Hollywood starlets are coloring their naturally blonde locks and ...
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 10-May-2013
Share ] 