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Accused killer says he is ‘soldier of Allah’
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A man accused of murdering a British soldier in broad daylight on a London street told a court yesterday he was a soldier at war and loved the Islamic militant group al-Qaida.
Michael Adebolajo, 28, is accused with co-defendant Michael Adebowale, 22, of running over Afghan war veteran Lee Rigby in Woolwich, southeast London, on May 22 before attacking his unconscious body with knives and a meat cleaver.
Adebolajo sat just meters from Rigby’s family as he gave evidence for the first time. He told the court he was engaged in a war against Western nations fighting in Muslim countries.
Adebolajo and Adebowale, both British citizens, have both denied murder.
“I am a soldier of Allah. I understand that some people might not recognize this because we do not wear fatigues,” Adebolajo said, flanked by five prison guards in the heavily secured courtroom.
“It’s a war between Islam and those militaries that invaded Muslim lands. One of them happens to be British military and, unfortunately, the war continues to this day.”
Adebolajo, who converted to Islam in 2002, said he was “disgusted” by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and that a friend of his serving in the military had died during the conflict.
Adebolajo looked composed during most of his testimony, but became emotional when he told the court he feared “hellfire” if he did not fight for Allah but remained with his wife and his six children instead.
Asked what should happen to him, Adebolajo said he considered death a possible consequence of the attack.
“I should be ransomed to my mujaheed (holy fighter) brothers or I should be set free or I should be killed,” Adebolajo said.
He told the hushed courtroom he had not seen his baby son since the day of his birth, just days before Rigby was murdered.
Adebolajo said ever since his conversion he had thought he might one day end up killing a soldier, and expressed his admiration for al-Qaida.
“I love them. They are my brothers,” said Adebolajo, giving his name as Mujaahid Abu Hamza. “I have never met them but I love them.”
He told the jury he had tried to move to Somalia in 2010 because it embraced Islamic law, or sharia, but he had been detained in Kenya and brought back to Britain.
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