Lee Rigby murder case

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People of Manchester , England commemorate Rigby (June 2013)

The murder of Lee Rigby (* 1987 , in Crumpsall , Manchester ) took place on May 22, 2013 in the London borough of Woolwich . Rigby, a soldier in the British Army , was deliberately hit from behind in a car and then killed by the two inmates with cutting weapons and knives.

In a video recording of a police interrogation shortly after the crime, one of the perpetrators stated that May 22nd was the day on which he and his accomplice should “obey Allah”. A soldier was ideal for them because soldiers carried death as an occupational risk. He had no personal aversion to Rigby, who happened to be crossing the street; on the contrary, Rigby was a "non-Muslim variant" of himself and deserved a humane death. That's why they tried to cut his carotid artery.

In the trial six months after the fact, Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo, 22 and 28 years old, pleaded not guilty; they were sentenced to life imprisonment or 45 years in prison. The British government spoke of an act of terrorism because the attackers were chanting Islamist slogans. They were filmed by passers-by, did not flee from the scene of the crime, but were later overpowered by the police there.

Course of the act

The place of the event, marked with an arrow

On May 22, 2013, 25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby was hit by a blue car on Wellington Street , just a few hundred meters from where he was based in the Royal Artillery Barracks , and was thrown onto the bonnet. The two occupants of the car then dragged the seriously injured man into the street, where they killed him with knives and a meat cleaver. They are also said to have tried to behead Rigby. Numerous eyewitnesses who had initially assumed a traffic accident notified the police.

According to witness reports, the men seem to have targeted attention. The perpetrators stayed at the scene and let passers-by film them. A woman engaged one of the perpetrators in a conversation. A video recorded with a cell phone and later published by British broadcaster Independent Television shows one of the alleged perpetrators with bloodied hands as he speaks into the camera:

“We swear by Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I'm sorry women had to watch this. But in our country women have to see the same thing. You will never be sure. Depose your government. She doesn't care about you! "

The same man is said to have asked passengers on a bus to take a picture of him.

Shortly after Rigby was hit by the car, the first call was made to the Metropolitan Police , which arrived about ten minutes later and cordoned off the crime scene. When trying to arrest the two perpetrators, they threatened the police with an ax and a revolver. They were then shot and overwhelmed by the officers. Because of their gunshot wounds, they were subsequently treated in different hospitals.

Victim

After the fact, it was initially said that the victim was a member of the British Army who was stationed in the Royal Artillery Barracks . However, this has not been confirmed by the authorities. The UK Department of Defense announced the victim's identity as Lee Rigby on May 23, 2013. The 25-year-old was a drummer in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers . Rigby had been in the service of the British Army since 2006 and completed missions abroad in Cyprus and Afghanistan ; At times he was also stationed in Germany . He was also used to support the guards at the Tower of London , from where he came just before the crime. He was from Middleton, Greater Manchester . Rigby was married and had a two-year-old son at the time of the crime.

At the time of the attack, Rigby was off duty and wearing civilian clothes; he wore a hoodie from the charity "Help for Heroes", which works for war-disabled British soldiers.

The funeral ceremony was held in Bury, Greater Manchester, on July 12, 2013 with military honors and attended by several thousand people, including many active and former soldiers, and in the presence of Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson . The funeral took place in private at Middleton Cemetery.

On September 1, 2014, Rigby's name was engraved on the cenotaph at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, in an official ceremony.

Perpetrator

The perpetrators were two British citizens of Nigerian descent. The perpetrators had previously converted to Islam .

One of the perpetrators was identified as a Nigerian-born University of Greenwich student Michael Olumide Adebolajo of Saxilby , Lincolnshire . Adebolajo lived in a Christian environment as a child and converted to Islam at the age of 18. Radicalized by Anjem Choudary , he belonged to the Salafist group Al Muhajiroun in London and called himself Mujaheed after the conversion.

The second perpetrator was identified as Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale, 22, from Greenwich .

Investigation and Background

The two perpetrators were known to the security services from previous investigations. On May 25, Abu Nusaybah - an acquaintance of Adebolajo - reported to the BBC that the British secret service MI5 had made “intensive efforts” to recruit Adebolajo in the run-up to the crime. Nusaybah was arrested right after his interview with the BBC. There is no official confirmation of the recruitment attempts by MI5.

One day after the attack, Scotland Yard in Lincolnshire arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of accessory to murder.

At the start of the trial against Adebolajo and Adebowale for the murder of Lee Rigby and attempted murder of a police officer, both defendants pleaded not guilty on all counts. The trial began on November 29, 2013 in the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court . Both defendants were found guilty of the murder of Lee Rigby on December 19, 2013. The court sentenced Michael Adebolajo to life in prison on February 26, 2014 with no parole. Michael Adebowale, the younger of the two, was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Adebolajo and Adebowale appealed this judgment, but it was finally dismissed on December 3, 2014.

In July 2014, The Sun newspaper reported that Adebolajo and Adebowale had received legal aid of £ 212,613.63.

Reactions

British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke on the evening of the crime in a press conference of strong indications of a terrorist attack and broke off his visit to Paris . London Mayor Boris Johnson said it was almost certainly a terrorist attack.

Julie Siddiqi, executive director of the Islamic Society of Britain, condemned the crime and feared that the murder could lead to ethnic polarization in society. She told BBC Radio 4: "All of the Muslim organizations have come out with the strongest possible terms to say there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever, no justification for anything like this."

The British Muslim Council announced in a statement: "This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly."

The radical Islamist Anjem Choudary, however, justified the act with the words: "The cause [of Rigby's death] is clear - it is British foreign policy."

In the vicinity of the crime scene, security measures were tightened after the crime and all barracks were more closely guarded. An additional 1,200 police officers were deployed across London to prevent retaliatory acts and assaults against Muslim communities. Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the murder, there was anti-Muslim reactions across the UK. In the period up to May 27, 2013, “Hope not Hate”, an alliance against racism, documented 193 Islamophobic incidents, including 10 attacks on mosques.

Others

It was the first notable terrorist act with fatalities on British soil since 2005. On July 7, 2005, over 52 people and the four suicide bombers died in four attacks on underground trains and buses . Over 700 people were injured, some seriously.

On May 24, 2013, a 22-year-old suspected Islamist attacked a soldier on patrol in Paris with a knife and wounded his neck with a stabbing weapon. In August 2014, Brusthom Ziamani was arrested in London, carrying a 30 cm knife, hammer and black Islamist flag. The young man testified that he intended to attack and kill soldiers following the example of Adebolajo. On February 19, 2015, he was found guilty of preparing a terrorist act. On April 29, 2015, 18-year-old Kazi Islam, who said he was inspired by Rigby's murder, was convicted of attempting to incite a learning disabled person to murder a soldier and to procure components for a pipe bomb. On January 14, 2015, 26-year-old Zack Davis, a member of a far-right White Supremacy group, was found guilty of attempted murder. He had attacked a Sikh with a machete in a supermarket and injured his head several times. In court he claimed the act was an act of revenge for Rigby's murder.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ UK Department of Defense: Drummer Lee Rigby killed in Woolwich incident .
  2. ↑ Lee Rigby trial: Killing 'cowardly and callous', court hears . bbc.com. From November 29, 2013 (English)
  3. ↑ a b Woolwich attack 'incredibly hard' to stop. BBC, May 24, 2013, accessed May 24, 2013 .
  4. ^ A b Woolwich attack: knife-wielding suspect named as Michael Adebolajo .
  5. ↑ Woman involved London perpetrators in conversation with Tagesanzeiger, 23 May 2013, accessed on 28 December 2013.
  6. ↑ Soldier killed in the street - brutal murder shakes London ( Memento from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Florian Rötzer: Terrorist attack in London? - Telepolis, May 23, 2013.
  8. ↑ Kronen Zeitung : London: Victim Lee Rigby (25) had two-year-old son on May 23, 2013.
  9. ↑ BBC News : Woolwich attack: Lee Rigby named as victim, May 23, 2013.
  10. ↑ Miriam Shaviv: UK military calls attack victim a model soldier. In: The Times of Israel. Retrieved May 23, 2013 .
  11. ^ Woolwich attack: Lee Rigby named as victim. BBC News , May 23, 2013, accessed May 23, 2013 .
  12. ^ Dan Thompson: Woolwich soldier murder victim named as Lee Rigby from Middleton. In: Manchester Evening News . May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2013 .
  13. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-25153273
  14. ↑ Lee Rigby: Military funeral for killed soldier . 
  15. ↑ Lee Rigby's name engraved into Britain's largest military memorial | Mail online .
  16. ↑ The London killer was known to the secret service .
  17. ↑ Michael Adebolajo's parents are hard-working Nigerian immigrants .
  18. ↑ Assassin had contacts with hate preachers , Spiegel Online, May 24, 2013.
  19. ^ Woolwich attack: Suspects known to security services , BBC News, May 23, 2013.
  20. ↑ a b MI5 is said to have tried to recruit Adebolajo - sueddeutsche.de, May 25, 2013.
  21. ^ Suspect In Attack On British Soldier Named, May 23, 2013.
  22. ↑ Two plead not guilty to Rigby murder , BBC News, September 27, 2013.
  23. ↑ Lee Rigby trial: Killing 'cowardly and callous', court hears BBC News, November 29, 2013.
  24. ↑ Two guilty of Lee Rigby murder , BBC News, December 19, 2013.
  25. ↑ Lee Rigby murder: Adebolajo and Adebowale jailed BBC News, February 26, 2014.
  26. ↑ Lee Rigby murder: Killer loses legal challenge , BBC News. 3rd December 2014. 
  27. ^ [1] Official reply from the Ministry of Justice.
  28. ↑ Woolwich attack: David Cameron vows UK will 'never buckle in face of terror' . 
  29. ↑ Ross Lydall: Woolwich killing: plea for calm as mosques are targeted and English Defense League clash with police . In: Evening Standard .
  30. ^ Paul Owen and Conal Urquhart: Woolwich attack: government convenes emergency meeting, The Guardian, May 22, 2013 .
  31. ↑ Head of radical Islamist group who knew London knifeman blames UK foreign policy - reuters.com.
  32. ^ Boris Johnson: Likely that attack was a 'terrorist incident' . 
  33. ↑ Al Jazeera, May 23, 2013 UK names soldier murdered in London . 
  34. ↑ Woolwich murder: 200 Islamophobic incidents since Lee Rigby's killing . 
  35. ↑ FAZ.net: Suspect arrested .
  36. ↑ Brusthom Ziamani: Teenager guilty of plot to behead soldier . 
  37. ↑ Teenager Kazi Islam jailed for 'terror grooming' . 
  38. ↑ Lee Rigby revenge attacker Zack Davies given life sentence . 

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 '18 "  N , 0 ° 3' 44.6"  E