LONDON’S MET POLICE have released an image of the replica ‘suicide jacket’ which a man plotting to kill British Prime Minister Theresa May intended to use.
Naa’imur Rahman (20) pleaded guilty during his trial to engaging in conduct in assisting the preparation of terrorist acts.
As part of his intended attack, Rahman, of north London, sought to detonate a bomb in the vicinity of Downing Street. He planned to use the ensuing chaos to gain access to Downing Street so that he could assassinate May.
However, unbeknown to Rahman, as he was putting his plan together he was confiding with a network of online role-players from the Met Police, MI5 and the FBI who, in turn, introduced him to real-world undercover officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Rahman went on to meet these officers on a number of occasions, culminating in his arrest in November 2017 shortly after Rahman collected what he believed to be a homemade bomb but was, in fact, a harmless replica.
Undercover officers
In September 2017, Rahman unwittingly contacted an online role-player working with the FBI who, in turn, introduced him to online role-players from MI5 and the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Rahman gradually revealed his ambition to carry out a terrorist attack, targetting the Prime Minister. He provided details of the preparation work he had been doing.
Counter-terrorism detectives went on to recover him carrying out reconnaissance around Westminster.
Rahman also sought the officers’ help to obtain a bomb and gave an undercover counter-terrorism police office his jacket and rucksack to be converted into a suicide jacket and bomb in a bag.
The officers again met Rahman in the former’s car a week later, on 28 November 2017, by which time the items had been converted into replica improvised explosive devices.
On receipt of the items, Rahman told the covert officer “Now I’ve seen everything, it feels good”.
As he moved away from the car, waiting Met Police officers moved in and arrested him.
Guilty
Rahman pleaded guilty during his trial to engaging in conduct in assisting the preparation of terrorist acts. This charge relates to a “sponsorship” video he filmed for one of his associates.
He is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 31 August.
“Rahman is an extremely dangerous and determined individual,” Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said.
“Rahman’s target was the Prime Minister but he had no qualms about killing innocent bystanders in the process of reaching her. In fact, at one point he told a covert counter-terrorism officer that even if he could not reach the Prime Minister, he just wanted to strike fear into people,” he said.
“This case demonstrates the strength of the cooperation between the UK’s intelligence agencies and the FBI. As a result, we were able to disrupt Rahman’s plans and ensure that a terrorist attack was prevented.”
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