Man accused of plotting a 7/7-style bomb attack on the Westfield shopping centre is a ‘lowlife idiot’ who enjoyed drugs and alcohol, according to his brother
November 30, 2015 in News by RBN Staff
Daily Mail | JAMES DUNN FOR MAILONLINE |
- Mohammed Rehman, 25, was arrested for planning a London bomb attack
- Brother Shaukat today called him an ‘idiot’ and a ‘lowlife’ at the Old Bailey
- Rehman ‘took drugs, alcohol and messed around with girls,’ court heard
- Shaukat said brother showed him throat-cutting video and condemned it
A man accused of plotting a 7/7-style bomb attack on Westfield shopping centre was a ‘lowlife idiot’ with a history of drugs and alcohol, his brother said today.
Hapless Mohammed Rehman, 25, was arrested after he asked for advice on Twitter whether to target a Westfield shopping centre or the Underground tube system, the Old Bailey has heard.
He was allegedly only two days away from being able to construct a working bomb on a similar scale to those used in the 7/7 bombings in which 52 victims were murdered.
Accused: Rehman, 25, left, and his wife Sana Ahmed Khan, 24, right, are on trial at the Old Bailey
But his brother Shaukrat said today that the Isis-inspired fanatic was anything but a devout Muslim and would drink alcohol, had a history with drugs, and messed around with women.
Rehman carried out a ‘test explosion’ in the back garden of his family home in Reading and sent a video of it to his secret wife Sana Ahmed Khan, 24, it is claimed.
But he had married his bride in secret and her parents had cut her off as a result after hearing from the Muslim community that he had extremist views and was already married.
Rehman spent hours playing violent video games and the hapless bomber tweeted form the account Silent Bomber, the court heard.
Shaukat told jurors that he had such a low opinion of his brother that when he saw chemical flasks and equipment in Mohammed’s room but thought he was trying to make crack cocaine.
Zafar Ali QC, for Mohammed Rehman, asked: ‘You thought he was making crack cocaine because you knew he had a drug habit?’
Rehman had drawn diagrams detailing how to make a bomb using a mobile phone, the court heard. Pictured, a broken device that was recovered by police from the 25-year-old’s home in Reading
Shaukat replied: ‘Yes. Because he used to get involved with people who dealt with that kind of stuff.’
He said he even paid off a drug debt for his brother during 2015.
The witness also described how Mohammed showed him a beheading video of a man dressed in black cutting another man’s throat in March 2015.
Shaukat said he told his brother: ‘Don’t follow that bulls***.’
He added: ‘From what I have read from the scriptures, interpretations of the Koran, it is like the complete opposite of what the video showed.
‘He just remained quiet. I wasn’t really interested in this kind of thing in the first place, he didn’t mention it to me again.’
Mr Ali asked Shaukat: ‘You consider your brother to be a bit of a lowlife, a bit of an idiot.’
Shaukat replied: ‘Of course he is, yes.’
Pseudonym: Mohammed Rehman is said to have used this Twitter account to ask for thoughts on potential targets
Mr Ali suggested Mohammed Rehman played computer games including Medal of Honour, Call of Duty and Silent Bomber.
Jurors have heard Rehman used the name Silent Bomber for his Twitter account.
Mr Ali added: ‘He was a party animal, he took drugs, alcohol, messed around with girls, as far as you understood totally un-Islamic, he is a corrupt person.’
Shaukat replied: ‘Yes.’
Khan, who has a degree in English from the University of Greenwich in southeast London, is accused of bankrolling the efforts to build a bomb, and allegedly shared Rehman’s interest in violent Islamic extremism.
The couple kept their Islamic wedding from aspiring teacher Khan’s well-to-do parents because they did not consider the drug-taking, divorced Rehman to be a suitable husband, the trial heard.
According to Rehman, events then ‘snowballed’ and led to an ‘avalanche’ in May when the couple were arrested and charged with preparing a terror attack.
Dangerous: Chemicals were being prepared for a massive bomb, which was just days away from completion, the court heard. Pictured, some of the chemicals that were seized from Rehman’s Reading home
BOMB PLOTTER’S PLEADING LETTER TO MOTHER-IN-LAW WAS WILLING TO DIE BECAUSE HE FEARED BEING PARTED FROM ‘BELOVED’ SECRET BRIDE
Mohammed Rehman wrote an anguished letter begging for the forgiveness of his mother-in-law and claiming his ‘situation’ was the result of fears he would be parted from his ‘beloved’ wife.
He wrote: ‘In order for you to understand this situation, I’d like to take you back to 2006, where I met the best thing that ever happened to me – a precious diamond of a woman – your beautiful daughter Sohni.
‘The minute I laid eyes on her, there was nothing more that I could desire from life than to be with her forever. I did everything that I possibly could, even from without my capabilities, to facilitate a way for us to be together.
Rehman wrote an anguished letter saying his ‘situation’ was the result of an ‘avalanche’ effect of him fearing he would be parted from Sohni (pictured)
‘But just when life couldn’t seem to get any better, it was only the beginning of a series of obstacles between her and I, that grew greater with time – like the ‘snowball effect’ – resulting in this avalanche you see before you today.’
He went on: ‘What I would like to point out is the fact that you, her parents, had already made your minds up about me, not allowing a chance for us to meet, that perhaps you could make a genuine decision regarding my suitability for Sohni.
‘You had your reasons to despise me without knowing me, but I dared not challenge them. Thus I was prepared to throw my life away because a life without Sohni was not one that I had planned.’
Rehman told Mrs Khan that her daughter had been ‘dragged into this with me’ but was ‘completely innocent’ and had been ‘undermined’ by their association.
Rehman told Mrs Khan that her daughter had been ‘dragged into this with me’ but was ‘completely innocent’ and had been ‘undermined’ by their association.
He added: ‘Had I wished to take your daughter away from you, I would have ran away with her, but I’m not one to take a family apart.
‘I wish there was a way for me to compensate you for the sufferings that I have caused, but since there isn’t I figured writing to you is the least I could do, as I can only imagine what you’re going through right now.
‘I’m truly and deeply sorry for everything and I’m also really sorry if this letter only adds to your pain. But if it makes you feel any better I have never been in as much pain as I am in today.
‘They could give me a life sentence and I couldn’t care less, but they’ve taken the most beloved and precious thing from me and locked her away like an animal.’
He ended the letter by saying: ‘I hope you can find a way to forgive me.’
In June, he wrote an anguished letter to his mother-in-law Saleen Ahmed Khan from Belmarsh prison begging forgiveness.
He wrote that he felt he had nothing to live for because he believed he would be parted from his ‘beloved’ wife, who he had met when she was just 16 – but her parents refused to let them marry .
The letter was produced as evidence in the couple’s trial as Mrs Khan was being cross examined by her daughter’s legal team.
Her mother Saleen Ahmed-Khan said that Sana was warned that if she wanted to get married to Mohammed Rehman she would be cut off from her family.
Mrs Ahmed-Khan added: ‘She said she didn’t want that, she said she would break up with him.’
She said she had no idea Sana and Rehman got married in an Islamic ceremony until after her daughter’s arrest in May this year.
Mrs Ahmed-Khan said she heard negative things about Rehman in the Muslim community.
‘I didn’t see him as the right choice for my daughter. She was brought up to be free, she had a very comfortable life as a moderate Muslim.
Equipment to prepare for the alleged attack that was found in Rehman’s home and released by police
‘He didn’t have any ambitions, I had also found out from the Muslim community he was married and I was concerned whether she knew he was married, and he took drugs.’
She said Sana had never shown any support or sympathy for terrorist groups.
The couple allegedly bought the ingredients for a bomb on eBay and had tested explosives in Rehman’s back garden on at least two occasions.
Investigators found a cocktail of chemicals at his home that he had planned to use to make the bomb.
He also had handwritten recipes for the explosives RDX, ETN and Ammonium Nitrate and the Al Qaeda bomb-making guide ‘Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.’
Rehman, from Radstock Road, Reading, and Sana Ahmed Khan, from Hutton Close, Earley, Wokingham, deny preparation for terrorist acts.
Rehman denies a second charge of possession of articles for terrorist purposes.
The trial continues.
