Woolwich murder accused tells court he has “no regrets”

Drummer Lee Rigby’s killers admitted at the murder trial to having no regrets for killing the soldier. Michael Adebolajo said that he was a “soldier” himself, fighting for Allah.

He said he has no regrets for murdering Mr Rigby, as he claims he was obeying a religious command. He admitted: “I will never regret obeying the command of Allah. That is all I can say. I’m a mujtahid, I’m a soldier, I’m doing what Allah commands me to do. I can’t do anything else.”

As well as calling himself a mujtahid the defendant said that he “loved Al Qaida”. He called the terrorist group “his brothers in Islam”. He added that as a soldier he should be ransomed to his religious brothers by either being set free or killed.

On the day of the attack in May last year, Adebolajo said that he wasn’t sure if Mr Rigby was a soldier when they drove the car at him. He told the jury that the victim subconsciously moved after being ran down. The Islam fanatic said that he tried to remove the Drummer’s head with a meat cleaver but was unsuccessful.

Adebolajo said he had no bad feeling towards Lee Rigby’s family, who attended the court case at the Old Bailey. He said: “Every soldier has a family, has a family who loves him, just like me.” He claimed that Mr Rigby died because of foreign policy and that he continues to believe that this killing will save many lives, not only in the Muslim countries but in Britain too.

He praised the emergency services after being shot by the police, saying that after the police arrived, he hoped that he could be martyred. “I was quite surprised I got so close before they shot me,” he admitted.

Rigby’s murderer denied planning to kill a police officer because of his admiration for the fire services, which applied first aid to him at the scene and the kindness of the nurses in the hospital.

The defendant was born in a Christian family and converted to Islam during his first year of studies at University of Greenwich. In 2010 he travelled to Somalia but was captured in Kenya and sent back to Britain. Under the cross examination, Adebolajo agreed that he had planned to kill a soldier. He described it as a “military attack”.

The trial continues.

Justyna Majewska