A radicalised student was today sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to stab to death a former government minister for supporting the Iraq war. Roshonara Choudhry was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years at the Old Bailey.
Choudhry, 21, was convicted on three charges after a short trial in which she ordered her defence team not to challenge the prosecution's case because she did not recognise the jurisdiction of the British court. The Old Bailey jury took just 14 minutes to return unanimous verdicts on the attempted murder charge and two counts of having an offensive weapon.
Mr Justice Cooke, sentencing Choudhry, said she would continue to be a danger to members of parliament for the foreseeable future: "You said you ruined the rest of your life. You said it was worth it. You said you wanted to be a martyr."
If Choudhry had succeeded in killing Stephen Timms, she would have been given a whole-life sentence, meaning she would never have been released, Cooke added. "You intended to kill in a political cause and to strike at those in government by doing so. You did so as a matter of deliberate decision-making, however skewed your reasons, from listening to those Muslims who incite such action on the internet," said the judge.
Choudhry did not suffer from any mental illness, but had committed evil acts coolly and deliberately. "You are an intelligent young lady who has absorbed immoral ideas and wrong patterns of thinking and attitudes. It is not only possible, but I also hope that you will come to understand the distorted nature of your thinking, the evil that you have done and planned to do, and repent of it," he said.
Appearing via video link from prison, Choudhry spoke only to confirm her name and showed no emotion as she was sentenced. After the sentence was passed, the video link was turned off as a group of men began shouting in the public gallery "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest"), "British go to hell" and "Curse the judge." A small demonstration was taking place outside the court.
It emerged yesterday that police believe the student is the first Briton to have been inspired by al-Qaida to try to assassinate a politician on British soil.
During the short trial, the court heard that Choudhry had smiled and pretended she was going to shake hands with Timms, her local MP, before plunging the knife twice into his stomach at his constituency surgery in east London on 14 May 2010. She was disarmed by the politician's assistant and held by a security guard.
When arrested she confessed to police that the stabbing was "punishment" and "to get revenge for the people of Iraq", the Old Bailey heard. A list of other politicians was found in her possession, and she had researched voting records on Iraq.
A police source and those close to Choudhry said she had been radicalised by watching internet sermons by Anwar al-Awlaki, an Islamist cleric now in Yemen who the US suspects masterminded several terrorist plots. The most recent is the attempt, uncovered on Friday, to send bombs on cargo travelling in planes. The discovery sparked a worldwide terrorist alert.
The investigation into Choudry's attack, initially thought to have resulted from mental illness, was taken over by Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command, after the link to Awlaki was discovered on Choudhry's computer and after she told detectives she had watched the extremist's sermons.
Awlaki is the "spiritual leader" of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and the US suspect him of inspiring the Muslim soldier who shot dead 13 of his colleagues in 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas.
Choudhry dropped out of her studies, in English and communications at King's College London, earlier this year. She had won academic prizes and was tipped for a first-class degree. It is understood that examination of her computer shows she downloaded the Islamist material late in 2009.
Timms, Labour MP for East Ham, made a full recovery after the attack and gave evidence at the trial.
Today he described the attack as a "bolt out of the blue", backing calls for an overhaul of websites hosting terror videos after Choudhry's "puzzling and alarming" radicalisation. "My real worry about it all is that a very bright young woman with everything to live for would reach the conclusion that she should throw it all away by attempting to kill the local MP," he said.
Describing the moment he was attacked, he said: "I shouted out, 'What was that for?'. That was the last thing that I expected to happen and there was absolutely no explanation to me. She didn't say a word."
Timms – who has continued to hold surgeries in his local office with added "sensible arrangements" – described the sentence as "appropriate". He was "very grateful" for the support from family and constituents, "including Muslims from my constituency who told me they were praying for a speedy recovery".
The judge expressed his best wishes to the MP, saying he continued to represent his constituents faithfully "albeit with heightened security", and referred to the MP's Christian beliefs.
He said: "I understand that he brings to bear his own faith, which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant. Those values are those upon which the common law of this country was founded and include respect and love for one's neighbour, for the foreigner in the land, and for those who consider themselves enemies, all as part of one's love of God."
