Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, have been found guilty of the murder of British soldier, Lee Rigby. The two Muslim extremists were found guilty today of hacking to death the British soldier in broad daylight on a London street.
Adebolajo tried to behead Rigby with a meat cleaver in front of horrified passers-by. The pair had argued they attacked the 25-year-old soldier to avenge the deaths of Muslims at the hands of British troops.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain was united in condemnation of the killing, which state prosecutors described as ‘one of the most savage offences ever prosecuted by our counter-terrorism lawyers’.
Rigby’s relatives, who had walked out of the trial several times during harrowing evidence about his death, broke down in tears as the guilty verdicts were given. Adebolajo kissed his copy of the Koran as he was taken down to the cells at the Old Bailey court in London.
Jurors cleared Adebolajo and Adebowale of the attempted murder of a police officer. The pair were shot by armed police at the murder scene in Woolwich, southeast London, after Adebolajo charged at them waving the meat cleaver, while Adebowale raised a rusty, unloaded gun.
The killers, both Britons who were raised by Nigerian Christian families before converting to Islam, may not be sentenced until January. The court heard that they believed they were “soldiers of Allah” who were avenging the deaths of Muslims, but the judge ruled on Tuesday that this could not be used as a defence.
Minutes after the murder, Adebolajo, still wielding the cleaver and with his hands covered with blood, told onlookers the attack was ‘an eye for an eye’. “We swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone,” he said in a rant that was filmed on a witness’s mobile phone.
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