Briton in street killing was held in Kenya

PHOTO | JUSTIN TALLIS People look at floral tributes left at the scene where Drummer Lee Rigby of the 2nd Battalion was killed outside Woolwich Barracks in London on May 24, 2013.   AFP

By NATION REPORTER and AFP newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.co, Saturday, May 25   2013 

 

In Summary

• On Saturday, Britain’s intelligence services were under pressure to explain their knowledge of two Islamists suspected of hacking a soldier to death in London, amid claims they had tried to recruit one of them

A British man who attacked and allegedly killed a soldier with an accomplice in London was detained in Kenya last year and deported to the UK, it has emerged.

A friend of Michael Adebolajo, Abu Nusaybah, told BBC television that Adebolajo had been picked up by Kenyan police and treated roughly while in detention.

Mr Nusaybah was arrested by British police shortly after recording the interview at the BBC. Mr Adebolajo, whose parents are from Nigeria, and another suspect shocked Londoners when they confronted a British soldier near an Army barracks and allegedly killed him with knives and meat cleavers.

Both men were shot and are in detention. Mr Nusaybah alleged that Adebolajo was arrested while studying in a village in Kenya last year. After refusing to answer questions, Adebolajo was told that he was “not in the UK” and was then tortured, he claimed.

On his return, “he became more reclined [sic], less talkative. He wasn’t his bubbly self,” said Nusaybah, who said that the experience further radicalised Adebolajo.

Contacted, Kenyan police said they could not comment on the allegations. Administration Police spokesman Masoud Mwinyi said he would have to find out the particulars of the case before issuing a statement on the matter.

On Saturday, Britain’s intelligence services were under pressure to explain their knowledge of two Islamists suspected of hacking a soldier to death in London, amid claims they had tried to recruit one of them, reported the Guardian.

The two – who remained under armed guard in hospital after being shot by police at the scene – were known to the intelligence services but were reportedly assessed as not posing a deadly threat.

Mr Nasaybah was arrested at the BBC after telling the broadcaster that British security services had tried to recruit the murder suspect.

He told BBC television on Friday that Adebolajo was asked by the MI5 domestic intelligence agency if he knew certain individuals and later if he wanted to work for them.

He said Adebolajo had snubbed their approach. The BBC said Abu Nusaybah was promptly arrested on their premises after giving the interview.

Scotland Yard police headquarters said counter-terror officers had arrested a 31-year-old man in London on suspicion of the “commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.

It is understood the arrest was not directly linked to the brutal murder of soldier Lee Rigby, who was hacked to death in broad daylight on Wednesday outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London.

Rigby’s distraught wife said the family found it hard to accept that the 25-year-old had been killed not in a war zone but on the streets of his own country.