‘White widow was behind terror plot’

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The Home Counties "white widow" of a 7/7 bomber was accused on Thursday of being the main financier of a terror plot to kill hundreds of British tourists in Kenya.

Soldier's daughter Samantha Lewthwaite planned to use a deadly cocktail of bombs to target tourists in Mombasa, a court in the Indian Ocean resort heard.

Police believe 28-year-old Lewthwaite and British accomplice Jermaine Grant were days away from carrying out their attack before being arrested.

Grant, a Muslim convert, went on trial for his role in the alleged al-Qaeda-linked plot on Thursday.

Lewthwaite, who was seven months' pregnant when her husband Jermaine Lindsay detonated a bomb that killed himself and 26 others on July 7, 2005, was travelling in East Africa on a false passport when she was arrested with Grant five months ago.

She fled and is now being hunted by the CIA, Scotland Yard and Kenyan police and is thought to be in hiding in Somalia.

Islamic fundamentalist Grant, 29, from Newham, East London, denies bomb-making charges with intent to "cause loss of lives to innocent civilians".

Police believe their targets included the Serena Beach Hotel, popular with British tourists, and a nearby shopping centre.

Grant said nothing when asked by reporters if he knew the whereabouts of Lewthwaite, who is also a Muslim convert. Prosecutor Jacob Ondari said he believed university-educated Lewthwaite was linked to the plot and was the main financier.

He told the Mail: "Samantha Lewthwaite is linked to Grant. It is the same bomb plot and they were working together. She is wanted by police over this plot. We believe she was the main financier."  

On Thursday the cocktail of bomb-making chemicals found in one of the four properties rented by Lewthwaite in Mombasa was listed in court. It included acetone, hydrogen peroxide and ammonium nitrate - the material used by Lindsay on 7/7.

Grant appeared in court alongside his 19-year-old Muslim wife Warda Briek, a local businessman's daughter. The pair were married a day before his arrest on December 20.

He posed in Mombasa as a Canadian car dealer using a false name, the court heard.

A witness said he met Grant last year at a mosque in the city. Hassan Mohammed Hajj told the court Grant introduced himself as a car and mobile phones dealer. - Daily Mail



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