'British go to hell': Public gallery erupts as student inspired by Al Qaeda who tried to kill MP is jailed for lifeBy Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:02 PM on 3rd November 2010
A courtroom erupted in protest today after a student who tried to murder a Labour MP was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years.
Roshonara Choudhry, 21, stabbed Stephen Timms twice in the stomach after being inspired by a radical Al Qaeda cleric linked to the air cargo bomb plot.
Her attack on the former Treasury minister is thought to be the first Al Qaeda-inspired attempt to assassinate a politician on British soil.
Choudhry became radicalised after reading literature from radical Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
Seconds away: Roshonara Choudhry (bottom left hand corner) pulls a knife before plunging it into Labour MP Stephen Timms during a visit to his constituency surgery
Demonstrators protest outside the Old Bailey after the life sentence given to Roshonara Choudhry
The men pictured were removed from the building after allegedly cursing the judge, swearing at the court, and threatening members of the jury
After the sentence was passed, a group of men began shouting in the public gallery 'Allahu akbar' ('God is great'), 'British go to hell' and 'Curse the judge'. A demonstration was also taking place outside the court.Choudhry knifed East Ham MP Mr Timms as he held a constituency surgery at the Beckton Globe community centre in east London on May 14 after watching online jihadi sermons by US-born extremist Anwar al-Awlaki.
Mr Justice Cooke, sentencing Choudhry, said: 'You said you ruined the rest of your life. You said it was worth it. You said you wanted to be a martyr'.
The judge said Choudhry would continue to be a danger to Members of Parliament for the foreseeable future.
The judge said that if Choudhry had succeeded in killing Mr Timms he would have given her a whole-life sentence, meaning she would never be released.
He told her: 'You intended to kill in a political cause and to strike at those in Government by doing so.
'You did so as a matter of deliberate decision-making, however skewed your reasons, from listening to those Muslims who incite such action on the internet.
Baroness Neville-Jones, who has called for the removal of websites featuring jihadi sermons, and Labour MP Stephen Timms, who was stabbed by a woman who had been radicalised watching one of these videos
Choudhry confronts Timms, wearing the red sweater. Seconds after this image was taken she stabbed the MP in the stomach
'You are an intelligent young lady who has absorbed immoral ideas and wrong patterns of thinking and attitudes.
'It is not only possible, but I also hope that you will come to understand the distorted nature of your thinking, the evil that you have done and planned to do, and repent of it.
'You do not suffer from any mental disease. You have simply committed evil acts coolly and deliberately'.
Anwar al-Awlaki, believed to be based in Yemen, has used his personal website to encourage Muslims around the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq
Her sentence came after Britain's security minister urged the U.S. to shut down websites hosting Al Qaeda videos.
Baroness Neville-Jones said websites which try to radicalise members of the public would 'categorically not be allowed in the UK' and would be torn down.
Thousands of postings featuring Awlaki's videos are available to view online.
In one sermon, entitled 44 Ways To Support Jihad, he says: 'Jihad today is obligatory on every capable Muslim'.
The Home Office has confirmed that pressure is being put on the White House to remove the sermons.
In private comments to the Brookings Institute in Washington, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, Lady Neville-Jones said: 'When you have incitement to murder, when you have people actively calling for the killing of fellow citizens and when you have the means to stop that person doing so, then I believe we should act.
'Those websites would categorically not be allowed in the UK.
'They incite cold-blooded murder and as such are surely contrary to the public good.
'If they were hosted in the UK then we would take them down but this is a global problem.'
Student Choudhry told detectives she attacked Mr Timms as a 'punishment' and 'to get revenge for the people of Iraq'.
After her arrest she was revealed to be in possession of a hit list of other politicians who had voted for the war.
The 21-year-old was believed to have been acting alone after becoming radicalised watching online sermons by Awlaki, who has been linked to the cargo plane bomb plot sent from Yemen.
She had been a moderate Muslim student looking forward to a career in teaching before watching the videos.
Awlaki is also thought to be behind a mass shooting at a US army base in Fort Hood, Texas, as well as the failed Deroit underpants bomb plot on Christmas Day last year.
The court heard that Choudhry was a high-flying university student at King's College London who had hoped to become a teacher but dropped out weeks before carrying out the attack.
English language lecturer Alan Fortune said she was an outstanding student who had been expected to achieve a first-class honours degree, and added: 'The world was her oyster'.
Choudhry lived at home with her parents, who were not particularly religious and said to be devastated at her actions, and her four younger siblings.
Today, wearing a black headscarf, she spoke only to confirm her name when she appeared by videolink.
She sat placidly, blinking behind her glasses, as she watched proceedings on a screen in front of her.
Some of the 11 jurors who came back to court to hear the sentencing craned their necks to get their first glimpse of the woman they had already tried and convicted in her absence.
She did not appear for the trial because she refused to recognise the jurisdiction of the court.
The knives recovered from Choudhry. She stabbed Mr Timms with the top knife and brought the second weapon as a back-up in case the first broke
After the stabbing, Mr Timms was given first aid before being taken to the Royal London Hospital.
He had suffered two small lacerations to the left of his liver, and a small perforation of the stomach - injuries which could have been life-threatening due to possible loss of blood and infection had he not been treated.
The judge expressed his best wishes to Mr Timms, saying he continued to represent his constituents faithfully 'albeit with heightened security', and referred to the MP's Christian beliefs.
He said: 'I understand that he brings to bear his own faith, which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant.
'Those values are those upon which the common law of this country was founded and include respect and love for one's neighbour, for the foreigner in the land, and for those who consider themselves enemies, all as part of one's love of God.
'These values were the basis of our system of law and justice and I trust that they will remain so as well as motivating those, like Mr Timms, who hold public office'.
Academic high-flyer who told detectives murder bid was 'worth it' Determined: A ghostly CCTV image of Choudhry walking into see Mr Timms wirh her hand, holding the knife, concealed in bagAcademic high-flier Roshonara Choudhry planned to become a teacher before she ruined her life trying to kill Stephen Timms but told police: 'It was worth it.'
She was just months away from completing her degree at Kings College London when she began watching radical online lectures in November 2009.
Her mother described her as 'affectionate and helpful' and teachers said she was 'quiet and pleasant' as well as lauding her outstanding performance.
One lecturer said that 'the world was her oyster' but Choudhry decided that she would rather become a martyr.
She dropped out of university and, egged on by the online preaching of suspected terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki, she plotted to bring terror to the heart of the UK political world by trying to murder Mr Timms in May this year.
Jeremy Dein QC, defending, said that her radicalisation had taken place 'over a short period' before buying two knives for £1 each from an east London kitchen ware shop and taking a bus to carry out the attack.
He said she was a young woman trying to find a sense of 'individuality' when she came across radical website preaching, but she never became part of any wider terrorist organisation.
Choudhry, who had no previous convictions and was said to have been of 'exemplary character', was in the third year of an English and Communications degree, where lecturers described her as 'quiet and pleasant', said Mr Dein.
But she dropped out three weeks before the attack.
Her tutor had already noticed her work dropping off and she would later tell police she quit the college because it was involved in 'things where they work against Muslims'.
Choudhry had lived with her parents - described by Mr Dein as 'not especially religious' - and four younger siblings in east London.
Her mother Nometha Rahman said that her daughter was 'affectionate, helpful and hard-working'.
In February this year, she began working as a teacher in tuition centres in east London, providing private tutoring to primary school children.
Before starting university in 2007 she was at Newham sixth form college where a teacher said she 'related warmly and generously to other pupils, and teachers'.
Alan Fortune, a senior lecturer at Kings College, described her as a 'standout pupil who consistently achieved the highest grades, one of the most talented and respected students, on course to reach a first class honours degree'.
The court heard that Mr Fortune said: 'The world was her oyster.'
Four days before the stabbing, she looked at an online jihadi book which said that 'fighting the non-believers is mandatory' and that 'whoever kills non-believers is rewarded with paradise' Mr Dein said she had initially begun looking on the internet to learn more about her Muslim faith in search of 'not radicalisation but education'.
But he added: 'Having watched and listened to lecturers and preaching, she came to conclude that those who offend her faith deserve punishment. In this background, she felt constrained to act as she did.'
She admitted to police that she had ruined the rest of her life but also told them: 'It was worth it.'
Mr Dein said: 'Miss Choudhry's mother described how her actions had had a devastating effect upon the whole family and how their hopes and dreams for their extremely intelligent daughter had been shattered.'
The court heard that a draft letter to her mother found on Choudhry's computer said she hated living in Britain and did not want to spend the rest of her life in a non-Muslim country.
She said she could not live under the British Government, which she described as an 'enemy of Islam', and that she could not pay taxes to it or work as a teacher in its education system.
Four days before the stabbing, she looked at an online jihadi book which said that 'fighting the non-believers is mandatory' and that 'whoever kills non-believers is rewarded with paradise'.
Choudhry told police she thought she would be arrested or killed for killing Mr Timms, the court heard.
Sentencing her today, Mr Justice Cooke said: 'You said you wanted to die because you wanted to be a martyr and that it was Islamic teaching that to fight and die for your religion is the highest honour.
'You said that you thought you had fulfilled your obligation and your Islamic duties to stand up for the people of Iraq and to punish someone who wanted to make war with them.'
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