Prime Minister murder plotter given life

Naa’imur Rahman, 21, planned to detonate a homemade bomb hidden in a backpack at the gates of Downing Street. His intention was to kill or injure the police officers on guard and do enough damage for him to get through the gates. He would then use pepper spray and a knife against anyone remaining in his way and take a police officer hostage to gain entry into Number 10. Once inside Rahman planned to find the Prime Minister and detonate the bomb in his coat killing her and himself.

On 18 November he was seen on CCTV walking past the gates of Downing Street checking the layout of his intended target. At his trial the court heard how Rahman had been inspired by an uncle who was killed in a drone strike in 2017 while fighting for Daesh in Syria. His uncle had sent him extremist videos and told him about life under Daesh.

Unknown to Rahman, undercover police and officers from MI5 had been monitoring him for months. He had meetings with a man he thought was sympathetic to his plan and who Rahman thought would provide the explosives to put inside the backpack and his coat. The contact was actually a police officer.

At a prearranged meeting on 28 November Rahman collected his backpack containing a fake bomb, fake pepper spray and his coat which was now lined with dummy explosives. Shortly after leaving the meeting Rahman was arrested by another police officer. He was found guilty by the jury on 19 July and sentenced on 31 August.

A second man, Mohammad Imran, 22, was also found guilty on the same day of having a manual on his Kindle that set out how to conduct terrorist activity in a western country. The document provides practical advice on carrying out a campaign of violence. Chapter headings include, ‘Earning money’, ‘Internet privacy’, ‘Bomb making’ and ‘How to transport weapons’.

Both men knew each other and communicated on encrypted messaging apps as well as having face-to-face meetings.

During his trial Rahman pleaded guilty to making and sending a video to Imran in which Rahman was shown encouraging and assisting in the preparation of terrorist acts.

Imran will be sentenced at a later date.

At the time of Rahman's conviction, Sue Hemming from the CPS said: “Naa’imur Rahman planned a terror attack at the heart of British democracy. Despite the evidence against him including recordings of incriminating conversations, he denied preparing to commit a terrorist act. Thanks to the work of the police and security services, he would never have succeeded.

“The prosecution was able show that he posed a serious danger to the public and was a committed jihadist who accepted Daesh’s violent propaganda without question.”