How UK spies tried to buy over London Soldier's murder suspect's brother
British spies approached the brother of Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo more than ten times to convince him to work for the security services, it emerged yesterday.
Jeremiah Adebolajo said MI5 and MI6 ‘harassed’ him and tried to press him for details about his family before putting him on a ‘no-fly list’ when he refused.
The 26-year-old was first approached in 2011 when he moved to Saudi Arabia to teach English at the University of Ha’il, in NeJd.
He held 11 meetings with both MI5 and MI6, both in the Gulf and also in the UK, including on one occasion where he was intercepted as he got off a flight at Heathrow.
As well as asking questions about his brother Michael, 28, spies had also pressed him on his brother-in-law, James Thompson, who had converted to Islam and married his sister.
They also asked him to identify other men who had gone to the Yemen and may have been plotting to attack Britain, but he said he didn’t know them.
Previously it had been alleged that Jeremiah was paid thousands of pounds by MI6 as part of spying operations in the Middle East, and was allowed to fly first-class and stay in five-star hotels.
This was revealed in a document allegedly written by Jeremiah’s sister, Blessing Adebolajo, 32, which was seen earlier this month.
It was also alleged he was also asked to help ‘turn’ his brother, Michael, to work for MI5, who were already aware of Michael’s close links to extremist groups after he was arrested on his way to Somalia to join terror group Al-Shabaab.
“That’s not true in any way. I mean it’s completely false. I can understand what it’s based on, them approaching me while I was in Saudi Arabia, but the claim I worked for them helped them or co-operated with them in any way is false,’ Jeremiah Adebolajo told ITV News.
“I felt harassed. I felt there was no choice but to meet them whenever they wanted to meet me to speak to them whenever they wanted to speak to me…Their claim was that I had been in contact with, spoken with, met in my time in England with people who they were interested in.”
Government sources have already confirmed that Michael Adebolajo was known to MI5. It was alleged that he rebuffed efforts by the security service to recruit him as a spy.
Jeremiah may have been seen as the ideal way to change his mind and said last night that they tried hard to influence him.
“I would say that their approach wasn’t so much aggressive as it was threatening. I mean there were implicit threats made towards my welfare towards my time in Saudi Arabia, whether I would be able to retain my job, um, so in short I’d say their approach was worrying somewhat,’ he said.
Speaking about how often they met, both in the UK and Saudi Arabia, he said: “I’d say they were about at the beginning, they were you know, at least once a month and over the two years they lessened somewhat, but they would be at unexpected times and I would say once every two to three months, yeah.”
When asked about the execution of Lee Rigby and the alleged link to his brother Michael and Michael Adebowale, 22, he said: “Legally I can’t speak about it.”
On June 5, Michael Adebolajo, 28, of Romford, Essex, interrupted proceedings at the Old Bailey on several occasions during a bail hearing, telling judge Mr Justice Sweeney via videolink: “It’s not about you.”
Adebolajo, whose left arm was in a plaster cast after allegedly murdering the soldier in Woolwich, south-east London, on May 22, added: “This whole trial is about more than that. It’s not about me.”
He went on: ‘Really and truly it’s about the good, honest, decent, hardworking British members of society, whether they be Muslim or non-Muslim. They are the ones that have suffered the most.’
Adebolajo added: ‘It’s possible throughout life that people may sometimes smother you and say things about you that are false. But as a regular citizen and human being, we have to get over it.
“I believe that the British people are decent. From my experience growing up in my country, only a fraction will wish to slander and lie against me. But the rest would prefer to know the truth.”
Adebolajo is also accused of the attempted murder of two police officers and possession of a firearm – a 9.4mm KNIL model 91 revolver – with intent to cause others to believe violence would be used.
He was reprimanded by the judge for interrupting several times and eventually the videolink was switched off. The defendant was listed as Mujaahid Abu Hamza AKA Adebolajo by the court.
Adebolajo had asked to be referred to by the name when he appeared before magistrates.
He was charged with the four counts, after being discharged from hospital having spent just over a week there being treated for his injuries after being shot by police.
The court heard Adebolajo had been seen by psychiatrists three times while in hospital and at least twice since he had been discharged and in custody, and had been declared fit for interview in all.
While this was discussed the defendant interjected with: “I’m not familiar with this legal jargon. I’m a soldier, not a lawyer.”
The start of the hearing had been delayed after Adebolajo complained about having to be handcuffed in the video-link room at Belmarsh Prison.
He was eventually allowed to have them removed on the understanding that two prison officers sat beside him during the hearing.
Wearing a burgundy top with a pink jumper that was only over one arm due to his cast, Adebolajo also complained that his privacy had been violated.
He claimed he had been made to have his genitals examined twice ahead of his appearance in court.
Describing the prison officer who had asked to examine him as a ‘jobsworth’, he added that after the experience: “I cried like a baby, you know, into my sleeve.”
He said he had let him look at him as he had said ‘please’ when he asked, adding that he appreciated his politeness.
The packed courtroom listened as he likened the situation to when someone says ‘please’ when they ask to get past him when shopping for margarine in a supermarket.
“It could be Flora or Utterly Butterly, you find it hard not to move, “he said.
When reprimanded by the judge for interrupting, the defendant said: ‘Stop trying to stifle the truth. Wouldn’t want the truth to get out, would we? Wouldn’t want that.”
But he later praised Mr Justice Sweeney after he let him have his handcuffs removed, saying “May Allah bless you’ three times. That man who is wearing the white wig and the red robe. May Allah bless that man because he has had the courage to do something that many wouldn’t have had the courage to do so.”
Adebolajo will appear at the court alongside co-defendant Michael Adebowale, 22, of Greenwich, south-east London, for a preliminary hearing on June 28.
Culled from The Nation
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