Terrorism suspect tells court he was inspired by failed Plymouth suicide bomber Nicky Reilly

From the Plymouth Herald

 A TERRORISM suspect accused of grooming a vulnerable man so he would kill soldiers has told a court how he was inspired by failed Plymouth suicide bomber Nicky Reilly.

Kazi Islam is on trial at the Old Bailey after allegedly trying to persuade 19-year-old Harry Thomas to buy bomb ingredients and carry out an attack similar to the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

He has insisted in court his interest in extremism was for “research purposes”.

Islam said he was experimenting on the teenager to see if he could radicalise and “brainwash” him in the same way Stonehouse man Reilly was.

Reilly, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, became a Muslim at a mosque in Plymouth at the age of 16.

But he is said to have been radicalised in 2008 in a matter of weeks by two men in Pakistan via the internet who gave him step-by-step instructions on how to make bombs.

Islam told the Old Bailey he tried to brainwash Mr Thomas, who also has Asperger’s, as an “experiment” to see if the same could be done.

He said: “When I saw what he [Reilly] had done I wanted to conduct an experiment to see how this individual had become radicalised.

“Previously he had no belief, no religious convictions, and I wanted to know how he became brainwashed and radicalised and this made me choose Harry to be a placebo to conduct the experiment. That’s a nasty and cynical act that could have destroyed a life no less than the proposed murder. 

“I just wanted to see if he would succumb to it. I was waiting for him to say if he had made purchase of the materials that were discussed and had he done so, I would have told him ‘no’, I would have told him what I was doing.”

Islam, 18, from East London, denies preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

Giving evidence in his defence, he said his interest in extremism was “purely for research purposes and to understand the political side of my religion”.

He added: “I was studying the reasons behind it. It was mainly the illegal occupation, as extremists would put it, of Muslim lands in Iraq, Afghanistan.”

He said he wanted to find out why Fusilier Rigby had been murdered outside Woolwich Barracks in May 2013.

Asked why he downloaded a document called “How to make Semtex”, Islam said: “I was doing research. I was looking at terrorist atrocities, foiled plots in the UK. I was studying about how easily accessible these materials are – I did not have the intention of making it.”

Earlier in the trial, prosecutors told the jury how Islam befriended and then “ruthlessly exploited” Mr Thomas in a bid to persuade him to buy ingredients for a pipe bomb and kill two British soldiers. The trial continues