Police arrested a 20-year old Londoner days before he intended to carry out a suicide attack on Downing Street to kill the prime minister, Theresa May, a court has heard.
Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman believed he was corresponding online with Islamic State while planning the alleged attack but was in fact talking to members of the security services pretending to be from the terrorist group, the Old Bailey was told.
He was arrested in London on 28 November, shortly after the last of a number of meetings with undercover police officers posing as terrorists. The court heard how Rahman was provided with what he was told was a suicide vest and a bomb containing a similar amount of explosives to that used during the Manchester Arena terror attack six months previously.
The British-Bangladeshi, who is charged with preparing acts of terrorism, was arrested on 2 November and is on trial alongside another man, 21-year-old Mohammad Aqib Imran, who is accused of planning to travel abroad either to Libya or Syria in order to engage in terrorism. Both men deny the charges.
The first day of the trial heard that Rahman had been in contact with an uncle who had travelled to Syria and joined Isis and who had encouraged his nephew to carry out attacks in Britain. Rahman’s resolve to do something hardened over time and he was “tipped over” into doing so when he heard his uncle had been killed in a drone strike.
Details of conversations between Rahman and security services operatives playing the role of Isis members were read out to the jury. In them, Rahman said the uncle had sent him a video about bomb making.
“We plotted attacks before he was droned,” Rahman said, indicating that the nascent idea was to use a drone in the UK.
Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said the evidence would show how Rahman had put together a plan to attack Downing Street, carrying out reconnaissance and perfecting details.
Heywood read out details of messages sent on the Telegram app in which Rahman was allegedly snared by a fake Isis member.
On 14 September last year, Rahman said: “Can you put me in a sleeper cell ASAP? I want to do a suicide bomb on parliament. I want to attempt to kill Theresa May.”
The next day, he said: “My objective is to take out my target. Nothing less than the death of the leaders of parliament.”
Rahman talked about the MI5 building but allegedly said: “Getting outside parliament when all the leaders are there is simple, you can walk right outside.”
The court heard how Rahman was introduced on 1 November to an undercover police officer, known as Shaq, and was told he could help him get the resources he needed. After discussing various methods ranging from using poison, firearms and a drone, he told Shaq how he had settled on a plan to target May at Downing Street, claiming his main objective was to “take her head off”.
Heywood said that Rahman had grown “focused and determined”, carrying out reconnaissance of the Downing Street area and searching for radical inspiration online, including downloading material by the Yemeni-American militant preacher and al-Qaida figure Anwar Aal-Awlaki.
The court was shown video footage of his final meeting with Shaq, apparently shot using a hidden camera in the police officer’s car, where a coat that Rahman had previously handed over was given to him after it had been fitted out with what he was told were two separate quantities of explosives.
After he was shown a battery pack and an initiation method for the bogus device, Shaq asked him: “You ready for it now, yeah?”Rahman replied: “Yeah. Do you know? Now I’ve seen everything it feels good.”
The court was told that the 20-year-old, who was said to have family in the West Midlands but was living at various times in London, had been known to the Channel programme, a government project that seeks to intervene in the cases of individuals thought to be at risk of being drawn into terrorism.
The court also heard that Rahman had recorded an oath of allegiance in which he had taken the nom de guerre Abu Ubaida al-Britani. This name was used again in a video message that the prosecution said Rahman had recorded for his friend, Imran, in order to guarantee him safe passage in Isis territory if the plot was successful.
“It was in effect his gold card,” said Heywood.
Heywood told the court that at the heart of the case was a developing radicalisation in the minds of two young men who knew each other well. “The case is that their shared inspiration, from the warped ideology of the group calling itself Islamic State, led them beyond contemplation and into making plans and taking practical steps to engage in violent acts of terrorism,” he said.
The trial continues.
Additional reporting by Natalie Keffler
