A MAN IN the UK has been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment after plotting to kill Prime Minister Theresa May. 

Naa’imur Rahman (20) pleaded guilty during his trial to engaging in conduct in assisting the preparation of terrorist acts.

As part of his intended attack, Rahman, of north London, sought to detonate a bomb in the vicinity of Downing Street. He planned to use the ensuing chaos to gain access to Downing Street so that he could assassinate May.

However, unbeknown to Rahman, as he was putting his plan together he was confiding with a network of online role-players from the Met Police, MI5 and the FBI who, in turn, introduced him to real-world undercover officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

Rahman went on to meet these officers on a number of occasions, culminating in his arrest in November 2017 shortly after Rahman collected what he believed to be a homemade bomb but was, in fact, a harmless replica.

Unwittingly contacted the FBI

In September 2017, Raham unwittingly contacted an online role-player working with the FBI who, in turn, introduced him to online role-players from MI5 and the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

Rahman gradually revealed his ambition to carry out a terrorist attack, targeting the Prime Minister. He provided details of the preparation work he had been doing.

Counter-terrorism detectives were able to recover CCTV footage of him carrying out the reconnaissance around Westminster. 

Rahman also sought the officers’ help to obtain a bomb and gave an undercover counter-terrorism police office his jacket and rucksack to be converted into a suicide jacket and bomb in a bag.

The officers again met Rahman in the former’s car a week later, on 28 November 2017, by which time the items had been converted into replica improvised explosive devices.

On receipt of the items, Rahman told the covert officer “Now I’ve seen everything, it feels good”.

As he moved away from the car, waiting Met Police officers moved in and arrested him.

Guilty

Rahman pleaded guilty during his trial to engaging in conduct in assisting the preparation of terrorist acts. This charge relates to a “sponsorship” video he filmed for one of his associates. 

Following the four-week trial, Rahman was found guilty on Wednesday 18 July at the Old Baily of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts. 

“Rahman is an extremely dangerous and determined individual,” Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said. 

Rahman’s target was the Prime Minister but he had no qualms about killing innocent bystanders in the process of reaching her. In fact, at one point he told a covert counter-terrorism officer that even if he could not reach the Prime Minister, he just wanted to strike fear into people.

“This case demonstrates the strength of the cooperation between the UK’s intelligence agencies and the FBI. As a result, we were able to disrupt Rahman’s plans and ensure that a terrorist attack was prevented.”

Others charged

As part of the investigation, another individual – Mohammad Aqib Imran (22) of south-east Birmingham – was charged with the collection of information useful to terrorism in relation to a terrorist guidance book which specialist forensic analysts recovered from his Kindle following his arrest on 28 November 2017. 

He too was found guilty of this offence on 18 July. 

Imran was also charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts in relation to his alleged plan to travel to Libya to join Daesh. 

However, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on this matter and a retrial is due to take place on a date to be confirmed. 

Imran will be sentenced following the conclusion of his retrial. 

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