Crime Africa
UK terror suspect deported from Kenya after jail stint
A British terror suspect has been deported to the UK after completing a lengthy prison sentence in Kenya.
Jermaine Grant, 41, was arrested in London on Thursday after arriving on a flight from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
He was jailed in 2011 after bomb-making equipment was discovered in his flat in Mombasa, a Kenyan coastal city.
Grant is thought to have shared the flat with Samantha Lewthwaite, who is dubbed the “White Widow” and is wanted in connection with London’s 7/7 bombings.
After he was arrested in 2011, Kenyan police accused Grant of plotting to bomb tourist hotels on the country’s coast.
In 2019, a court acquitted him of conspiracy over the alleged plot, but convicted him of possessing of bomb-making materials.
On Friday, the UK’s Metropolitan Police confirmed that Grant had been detained in London under the Terrorism Act.
In a statement, the force said: “We can confirm that on 8 August, officers from the Met Police arrested [a] 41-year-old man who was wanted on recall to prison in relation to breaching licence conditions linked to a previous conviction.
“He was arrested at Heathrow airport as he arrived back into the UK on a flight from Kenya. The man’s license conditions were revoked in August 2005 following the initial breach.”
Grant was also arrested on suspicion of being a member of al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group, the Met Police said.
He remains in police custody.
Meanwhile, Ms Lewthwaite has not been seen since 2011 and is wanted by police in both Kenya and the UK.
She was nicknamed the “White Widow” following her marriage to London suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay.
The Muslim convert, who spent her childhood in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, remains one of the most wanted people in Kenya.
She is suspected of having links to al-Shabab, a Somali-based militant group, and a string of attacks.
Grant is believed to have become radicalized after spending time in prison with Richard Reid, a well-known extremist known as the “shoe bomber”.
Reid is serving a life sentence in the US following a failed plot to blow up a transatlantic flight with explosives in his shoe.
Source: bbc.com
