Woolwich killing: Adebolajo and Adebowale Convicted
Oladunjoye Opeyemi
Adebolajo followed the invasion of Iraq by British and American soldiers and engaged in protests again it. During the trials, he told the jury in Court Two of the Old Bailey. “It was the Iraq war that affected me the most, I saw the Operation with Shock and Awe, and it disgusted me. The way it was reported was as if it was praiseworthy, saying look at the might and awe of the West and America. Every one of those bombs was killing people.”
Adebolajo, who dropped out of the Greenwich University, was later arrested in Kenya while on his way to Somalia to join the Al-Shabaab group who has ties with the Al-Qaeda. He was deported back to London in late November 2010 and has been on the MI5 watch since then.
Michael Adebowale, 23, also a British, had a troubled upbringing. When he was 14, he had become involved in gangs in South-East London; at 18, he was dealing drugs and looking after a flat that was being used as a crack den.
In 2008, he was left with scars from a knife attack by a drug addict, he was also convicted of drug dealing and was jailed for eight months in a young offenders’ institution. The attack also left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and began suffering periods of acute mental illness, including delusions, such as hearing voices which played a key part in his later trial for Lee Rigby’s murder.
The meeting point of the two accused is not known but they both started working at Prayer stalls in Woolwich after Adebolajo’s deportation. Adebolajo worked as a preacher as he is a more vocal person while Adebowale was always seen handing out fliers to passersby.
On the day of the murder, Adebolajo filled up his car and later picked up Adebowale and the two were together for almost five hours before the attack. Although no one was following them, there was a silent CCTV camera on a shop that showed the car accelerate and hit Rigby as he crossed Artillery Place. He wasn’t in uniform and hadn’t come from his barracks.
An eye-witness said of the attack: “I lifted my head and I saw straight ahead at eye level two hands, two bloodied hands, one carrying a meat cleaver, a butcher’s knife, and the other one having a revolver. So I thought, right, it’s not an accident. We have a situation here.
“He told me he was a British soldier, and he killed him. So I said ‘why?’ ‘Because they drop bombs, the British Army purposely drop bombs on civilians in Islamic countries. So it was to avenge all these victims, female and children.’
“I asked him ‘what do you want to do?’ That’s when he said ‘I want war… here on the streets of London’.”
Adebolajo also gave Amanda Donnelly Martin, another eyewitness, a letter – his suicide note. He then delivered a speech on the street about the reason behind the murder and the wars in islamic cities caused by the invasion of Western Soldiers, an action he claimed fuelled their own violence in the streets.
After the murder, they waited for armed police to arrive – hoping that they would be killed and martyred. In a twist of fate, The three CO19 specialist firearms officers that arrived at the scene first,shot both men, and Within 40 seconds, treated them with their emergency first aid kit to stem the blood loss from the bullet wounds.
Adebolajo was quoted to have said as he lay bleeding from a bullet wound in his arm, sprawled on the ground, yards away from the mutilated remains of his victim, “Please let me lay here,I don’t want anyone to die. I just want the soldiers out of my country.”
He later told the jury in the court,”I wish the bullets had killed me so I can join my friends and family.”
During court trials, Adebolajo and Adebowale asked to be called Mujahid Abu Hamza and Ismail Ibn Abdullah, their given muslim names. Adebolajo claimed to be a holy warrior while giving his political and religious philosophies but Adebowale gave no statement as he had suffered a fresh mental breakdown with hallucinations after he was released from hospital into police custody. His lawyers gave no defence for him, only saying their client agreed with everything Adebolajo had said.
When speaking about the murders to Al Jazeera, Adebolajo’s brother, Jeremiah said that the Woolwich attack was “inevitable” and its justification is “obvious.”
The 26-year-old, who is also a muslim, said he recognised the attack as a direct blowback from the West’s war on terror calling it an act of war and arguing if British armed forces could also be called ‘violent men’ just as his brother had been labelled.
“The events to me were inevitable. There was eventually going to be another attack which mentioned foreign policy as its justification.
“I suggest that it won’t be the last, simply because of the tactics of the British secret service and foreign policy… for every violent action is a violent reaction.”
He also faulted the Kenyan Authorities’ treatment of his brother after his arrest and says he believes the British security services were “complicit in allowing him to be interrogated with the means of interrogation that the Kenyans chose.”
Although both men have been convicted of murder, a final verdict will not be given until the New Year. They could however remain in prison for the rest of their lives.
