A TERROR SUSPECT accused of crashing his car into the security barriers surrounding Britain’s Houses of Parliament appeared in court today charged with attempted murder.
Sudanese-born British national Salih Khater is accused of driving into a group of cyclists and then police officers last Tuesday.
He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in London where judge Emma Arbuthnot, England’s chief magistrate, remanded him in custody following a seven-minute hearing.
The 29-year-old is charged with two counts of attempted murder of members of the public and of police officers. He did not enter a plea.
Khater will next appear for another short hearing at the Old Bailey in London, England’s central criminal court, on August 31.
Wearing a grey t-shirt and white trousers, Khater confirmed his name, date of birth, nationality and home address in Birmingham, central England.
Prosecutor Samuel Main alleged that Khater “accelerated into a group of cyclists”, then, having driven through them, “veered off the open road, down a chute and towards police officers” guarding the parliament building.
The incident followed a “short but intensive period of reconnaissance”, he alleged.
Main said detectives had made extensive enquiries and had come up with “no evidence” of an accident, mechanical failure, a medical episode or disorder, intention to commit suicide or a crisis in Khater’s personal circumstances.
The prosecutor alleged it was a “deliberately calculated attack”.
Main said the choice of location and the attempt to kill police officers suggested “that the defendant intended to make a political statement”.
Prosecutors were therefore treating the case “as terrorism”, Main told Arbuthnot.
The location was close to that of another attack in March last year when Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Briton, mowed down pedestrians, killing five people before fatally stabbing a police officer.
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