UK NEWS

Prisoners wore fake suicide belts and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they attempted to murder a Prison Officer

23 September, 2020
Oliver Down

A court has been told that two prisoners wore imitation suicide belts and shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they attempted to kill a prison officer during a “terrorist attack” at a category A maximum security prison. 

The Old Bailey has been told that the convicted terrorist Brusthom Ziamani and his radicalised prison inmate Baz Hockton attacked a prison officer named Neil Trundle with homemade weapons at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire on January the 9th this year. 

The prosecuting QC Annabel Darlow QC stated that the pair attacked Mr Trundle for “terrorist purposes”. Ms Darlow told jury members in the court: “The attack on Prison Officer Trundle was carefully planned and executed using a number of makeshift weapons constructed from the limited materials available to two men being held in prison, including a homemade shank, lumps of twisted metal which had been covered in fabric to form grips, and two makeshift metal stabbing implements”.

In addition to this Darlow QC stated: “When they carried out the attack they shouted Allahu Akbar – ‘Allah is most great’.” UNN’s Oliver Down understands that the court was told that extremist materials were recovered from both men’s cells, including a four-page hand-written letter carried by Ziamani spelling out his “expectation of immediate martyrdom” as well as a “strong belief in violent jihad”. 

Mr Ziamani has previously been convicted of undertaking preparations for terrorist acts in relation to a plan to attack a member of the British military. In August 2014 he was arrested in possession of a hammer and a knife having informed his ex-girlfriend that he was planning a terrorist attack and would “kill soldiers” as part of that. 

The two defendants deny attempted murder, the trial continues and UNN’s Oliver Down will bring you more as he gets it. 

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