A TERROR SUSPECT accused of crashing his car into the security barriers surrounding Britain’s Houses of Parliament appeared in court today charged with attempted murder.

Sudanese-born British national Salih Khater is accused of driving into a group of cyclists and then police officers last Tuesday.

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in London where judge Emma Arbuthnot, England’s chief magistrate, remanded him in custody following a seven-minute hearing.

The 29-year-old is charged with two counts of attempted murder of members of the public and of police officers. He did not enter a plea.

Khater will next appear for another short hearing at the Old Bailey in London, England’s central criminal court, on August 31.

Wearing a grey t-shirt and white trousers, Khater confirmed his name, date of birth, nationality and home address in Birmingham, central England.

Prosecutor Samuel Main alleged that Khater “accelerated into a group of cyclists”, then, having driven through them, “veered off the open road, down a chute and towards police officers” guarding the parliament building.

The incident followed a “short but intensive period of reconnaissance”, he alleged.

Main said detectives had made extensive enquiries and had come up with “no evidence” of an accident, mechanical failure, a medical episode or disorder, intention to commit suicide or a crisis in Khater’s personal circumstances.

The prosecutor alleged it was a “deliberately calculated attack”.

Main said the choice of location and the attempt to kill police officers suggested “that the defendant intended to make a political statement”.

Prosecutors were therefore treating the case “as terrorism”, Main told Arbuthnot.

The location was close to that of another attack in March last year when Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Briton, mowed down pedestrians, killing five people before fatally stabbing a police officer.

© – AFP 2018