United Kingdom: life for trying to attack London sights

British justice sentenced a former Uber driver who planned gun and knife attacks on London tourist sites to life imprisonment on Thursday after previously acquitted of terrorism charges.

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Mohiussunnath Chowdhury will have to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison for wanting to attack popular attractions or events such as the Madame Tussauds wax statue museum, an open-top tourist bus or the Gay Pride, with weapons or in using a van. The accused from Luton, north London, who was animated by " dreams of martyrdom ", was arrested three days before the " Pride parade " in early July 2019, after having revealed his plans to undercover police.

He boasted to them of having succeeded in deceiving the jury which had acquitted him unanimously of " preparation for an act of terrorism ", in December 2018, for having injured police officers with a saber in front of the Buckingham Palace in August of the previous year. More than a year later, he was convicted of terrorist offenses by other jurors in February before the Woolwich court, which sentenced him to life in prison on Thursday.

" A pathetic little man "

It was after his release from the London high-security prison at Belmarsh, following his acquittal, that Mohiussunnath Chowdhury was approached by four police officers who posed as extremists and who managed to gain his trust. Within a week of his release, he had started posting extremist messages on the internet. His trial revealed that he also prepared for the attacks by lifting weights, practicing knife and shooting, and repeating decapitation techniques.

He kept on his phone a document that included instructions for killing people with a knife. According to the prosecution, Chowdhury had been influenced by extremist preaching and there was a risk of an " imminent attack " aimed at causing " many deaths " among non-Muslims. Defense lawyer Simon Csoka had insisted that the accused had not really gone from words to action: it is " a pathetic little man " who " seeks attention " and " speaks but does nothing not ”.