British Muslim to face terrorism trial in Kenya

n00b · 2012-02-20T08:02:33+00:00

Jermaine Grant, a British Muslim, is due to face trial today accused of hoarding bomb-making equipment that police believe he planned to use in attacks on tourist hotels in Kenya. A Kenyan Defence Force soldier keeps lookout on the coast near Burgabo village, Southern Somalia Photo: AFP/GETTY Grant, 29, from Newham, east London, was arrested before Christmas last year with a Kenyan woman he had married days earlier, and a second Kenyan man. Chemicals including ammonium nitrate, acetone and lead nitrate were found in the one-bedroom apartment Grant had rented in a rundown suburb of Mombasa, the largest city on Kenya's coast. Prosecutors are expected to claim today that he intended to make a chemical bomb and that plans of hotels and resorts popular with tourists found at the flat indicated his target. Grant, who had been arrested by Kenyan police in 2008 after he tried to cross into neighbouring Somalia disguised as a woman, denied charges of possessing explosives and planning to commit a felony at earlier hearings. Intelligence sources fear that is one of an increasing number of radicalised young British Muslims who have travelled to east Africa to join with al-Shabaab, Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Islamists. Britons are thought to make up as many as a quarter of the 200 foreigners in al-Shabaab's ranks. Their increasing involvement in intensifying Islamist activity in east Africa is likely to be a topic on the agenda of a high-level conference on Somalia hosted by David Cameron in London on Thursday. Al-Shabaab has vowed attacks on targets in Kenya following the Kenyan army's invasion of its anarchic neighbour nearly five months ago, to hunt down al-Shabaab. Scotland Yard detectives flew to Mombasa shortly after Grant's arrest, on December 20, and have been in close contact with their Kenyan counterparts as prosecutors have prepared their case. There are fears that he is one of a number of what one security analysis think-tank called "lone wolves" radicalised in Britain who then travel overseas to learn explosives skills. Grant is said to have trained in Pakistan before travelling to east Africa. "This threat is set to evolve in a significant way," the Royal United Services Institute said in a report this month. "More experienced lone wolf terrorists are likely to be returning to Britain in the next couple of years – from wars in Somalia, Yemen or Nigeria – and from destinations and via routes that will be far more difficult for security services to monitor." Grant has already been found guilty of entering Kenya illegally and presenting a false identity to police, for which he was given a three-year sentence. His court case, which starts in Mombasa today, is likely to last several weeks. If he is found guilty, he faces up to life imprisonment in a Kenyan jail. Written by: Mike Pflanz, Nairobi Paper: The Telegraph ( British Muslim to face terrorism trial in Kenya - Telegraph )

Thread starter n00b
Start date Feb 20, 2012

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British Muslim to face terrorism trial in Kenya

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