A Sunday report from the UK Independent says that Michael Adebolajo, one of the men suspected of beheading British soldier Lee Rigby last week in Woolwich, had been known to anti-terror forces for at least three years before the attack. In 2010, he was arrested in Kenya for involvement in an al Qaeda-inspired plot, after landing on an island off the coast of Kenya, allegedly in an attempt to travel to Somalia to join the al-Shabaab terrorist group.
Adebolajo alleged that the Kenyan police tortured him. “We are being tortured by the police and we haven’t eaten for two days now,” he said. “We have even denied the right to talk to our family members and lawyer. We are being treated as criminals and we are innocent.” He was eventually deported back to Britain without charge.
Adebolajo’s family says that MI5, the British secret service, wanted him to turn informant by infiltrating radicalizing Muslim groups in the UK, but that he refused. Adebolajo’s brother-in-law has tried to blame MI5 for Adebolajo’s attack. He added that Adebolajo changed after his visit to Kenya in 2010, where the brother-in-law says Adebolajo just wanted to learn Arabic and Islam at Nairobi mosques. One of Adebolajo’s friends told the BBC that MI5 tried to recruit him six months ago.
Adebolajo’s alleged partner in terror, Michael Adebowale, was detained by British police just two months ago.
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