British terror suspect jailed for possessing explosives

AFP  |  Mombasa (Kenya) 

A on Thursday sentenced British terror suspect to four years prison for possessing bomb-making materials, charges the accused extremist has long denied.

The Muslim convert was arrested in Mombasa in December 2011 by police who allegedly found chemicals, batteries and switches in his possession.

Police said Grant was planning a bombing campaign against hotels popular with foreign tourists.

He denied the charges but was found guilty on April 24 by Evans Makori, who said there was sufficient evidence that Grant was in possession of the explosive materials.

Grant was sentenced in December 2015 to nine years in jail on separate charges related to forgery. He had earlier plead guilty to being in the country illegally and lying about his nationality.

Prosecutors in had accused Grant of working with fellow Briton Samantha Lewthwaite, dubbed the "White Widow" by the British tabloid press.

Lewthwaite is the widow of Germaine Lindsay, one of four radical Islamist suicide bombers who attacked the on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people.

Despite repeated rumours there has been no confirmed sighting of her since she gave the slip in Mombasa in 2011.

Grant is believed to have become radicalised as a teenager in the same where "shoe bomber" first turned to Islam.

Reid, who claimed he was an recruit, is serving a life sentence in the for trying to blow up a flight from to in December 2001.

Al-Qaeda-linked Al-has been waging an insurgency against Somalia's foreign-backed government for over a decade.

While it has lost some ground, the group continues to stage deadly attacks. In late 2018, the estimated there were between 3,000 to 7,000 fighters in

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First Published: Thu, May 09 2019. 21:41 IST