The Home Counties ‘white widow’ of a 7/7 bomber was accused yesterday of being the main financier of a terror plot to kill hundreds of British tourists in Kenya.
Soldier’s daughter Samantha Lewthwaite planned to use a deadly cocktail of bombs to target tourists in Mombasa, a court in the Indian Ocean resort heard.
Police believe 28-year-old Lewthwaite from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and British accomplice Jermaine Grant were days away from carrying out their attack before being arrested.
Married to a bomber: Lethwaite with Jermaine Lindsay who blew himself up in the 2005 terror attack near Russell Square which claimed 26 lives
Grant, a Muslim convert, went on trial for his role in the alleged Al Qaeda-linked plot yesterday.
Lewthwaite, who was seven months’ pregnant when her husband Jermaine Lindsay detonated a bomb that killed himself and 26 others on July 7, 2005, was travelling in East Africa on a false passport when she was arrested with Grant five months ago.
She fled and is now being hunted by the CIA, Scotland Yard and Kenyan police and is thought to be in hiding in Somalia.
Islamic fundamentalist Grant, 29, from Newham, East London, denies bomb-making charges with intent to ‘cause loss of lives to innocent civilians’.
Police believe their targets included the Serena Beach Hotel, popular with British tourists, and a nearby shopping centre.
Spacious: The villa, understood to be one of many hideouts used by Samantha Lewthwaite, has a large living room and is simply furnished
Explosive: Chemicals for bomb making were found during a raid in the Bakarani region of Mombasa in Kenya
RGrant appeared in court alongside his 19-year-old Muslim wife Warda Briek, a local businessman’s daughter. The pair were married a day before his arrest on December 20.
He posed in Mombasa as a Canadian car dealer using a false name, the court heard.
A witness said he met Grant last year at a mosque in the city. Hassan Mohammed Hajj told the court Grant introduced himself as a car and mobile phones dealer.
He said: ‘We attended prayers several times at the mosque. He introduced himself as a Canadian, Ali Mohammed Ibrahim, and I warmly welcomed him to Mombasa as a brother in Islam.’
He added: ‘After prayers, we had a coffee together.
‘When I asked him what he does for a living, he replied that he is a businessman from Canada.’
Lewthwaite’s family say they have not seen her for years. The case was adjourned until August.
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