Three accused of plotting Lee Rigby-style beheading

The three men were acting on a “truly chilling” fatwa calling on Muslims to kill police officers and members of the security services, the court heard.

Cousins Nadir Syed, 22, and Yousaf Syed, 20, and Haseeb Hamayoon, 28, deny planning acts of terrorism between 20 September and 7 November last year.

London’s Woolwich Crown Court heard they were inspired by Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo, who hacked to death Drummer Rigby near Woolwich barracks in 2013, and kept photos of them on their phones.

Max Hill QC, prosecuting, told jurors the fatwa was issued by Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad Al Adnani.

‘Cut off their heads’

It urged followers to rise up against westerners and “rig the roads with explosives for them, attack their bases, raid their homes, cut off their heads”.

It went on: “If you are not able to find an IED (improvised explosive device) or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman or any of their allies.

“Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him from a high place, or choke him or poison him.”

Mr Hill said: “All three defendants were demonstrating their support for Isis and acts of terrorism in general, and were interested in knives and killings by beheading. All three were ready, we say, for the important Islamic State fatwa exhorting and encouraging such murders.”

Lee Rigby

When Drummer Rigby’s killers were found guilty of his murder in December 2013, Nadir Syed received a message asking: “Did any of ur dons go to watch d court proceedings?”

Mr Hill said: “There is a level of interest in Rigby which we say is repeated again and again and again.”

He added: “Further to these WhatsApp messages demonstrating Nadir Syed’s interest in the knife murder of Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of Woolwich, his telephone handsets revealed stored images of Drummer Rigby’s murderers Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo with the message ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. Over one of the images was the word Mujahid, meaning Islamic fighter.”

Syria

The court was told the Syed cousins had both tried to catch flights to Turkey last year and prosecutors believe they were planning to reach Syria. Nadir Syed was stopped from boarding because he was on bail for a public order offence, while Yousaf Syed went no further than Turkey.

But a third traveller, Luqman Warsame, made it to Syria, where he fought for Islamic State and continued to communicate with the cousins back in Britain, the court heard.

Nadir Syed, from Hounslow, west London, and Yousaf Syed, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, chatted and smirked as they sat in the dock. Hamayoon, from Hayes, west London, sat alongside them.