On Friday, August 31, Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, was jailed for a minimum of 30 years at the Old Bailey in London.
Rahman, whose family was originally from Bangladesh, was arrested in London on November 28, 2017.
He thought he was corresponding online with representatives of Daesh but it turned out to be an undercover officer from the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command. MI5 was also involved in the operation.
30 years for terrorist who wanted to behead Theresa May https://t.co/p3SPSPcSFp pic.twitter.com/mNZWcQxNSC
— CourtNewsUK (@CourtNewsUK) 31 August 2018
Undercover police officers posing as Daesh terrorists provided him with what he thought was a suicide vest and a bomb.
Terrorist Had Been Sleeping In His Car
Rahman, who had been sleeping in his car, planned to force his way inside 10 Downing Street and then behead Mrs. May.
He came to the attention of the police in the first place in August 2017 when he was arrested on suspicion of sending indecent images to under-age girls.
Police did not charge him but while examining his cellphone they realized he held Islamist extremist views.
21-year-old Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years for plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Theresa May in a bomb and knife attack on Downing Street
— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) 31 August 2018
The trial heard Rahman's uncle had travelled to Syria to join Daesh and had been killed by a drone strike.
This "tipped him over" into deciding to attack the prime minister.
Rahman contacted an undercover officer posing as a Daesh member using the Telegram app.
'I Want To Kill Theresa May'
"Can you put me in a sleeper cell ASAP? I want to do a suicide bomb on parliament. I want to attempt to kill Theresa May," Rahman wrote on September 14 last year.
"My objective is to take out my target. Nothing less than the death of the leaders of parliament," he wrote the following day.
During trial of would-be suicide bomber Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, sentenced to life today, prosecution stated he "hoped for personal reward beyond death" ie his religious beliefs informed his planned terror act. Another eg of why "nothing to do with Islam" is a bankrupt phrase.
— Patrick O'Flynn (@oflynnmep) 31 August 2018
Rahman carried out reconnaissance around Whitehall in November and gave a rucksack to the undercover officer in the hope it would be filled with explosives.
The officer returned the rucksack — containing dummy explosives — and gave him a "suicide vest" on November 28, telling Rahman he was "good to go".
He was arrested as he walked away from the meeting in Kensington, west London.
Terrorist jailed for life told by judge: 'You will have plenty of time to study the Qur'an in prison in the years to come.'
— CourtNewsUK (@CourtNewsUK) 31 August 2018
Rahman had been known to the government's Channel programme — aimed at intervening in the lives of those who may be at risk of radicalization — since 2015.
But he was not engaging with the programme at the time of his arrest.
The judge, Mr. Justice Haddon-Cave, said he was convinced Rahman had not been entrapped by the undercover officers but was the "instigator and author" of his own actions.
"I am sure that at all material times Rahman believed the devices to be real and capable of causing serious harm," said the judge.
A probation report read to the court by the judge revealed Rahman had admitted in prison he would have carried out the attack had he not been thwarted.
Daesh is a terrorist group which is illegal in the UK, Russia and many other countries around the world.
