Terror trial hears of call to murder Brown and Blair

Published on Thursday 4 June 2009 22:03

A BRITON "devoted to the task of stirring up terrorism" encouraged fellow Muslims to murder Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, a court has heard.

Ishaq Kanmi, 23, of Blackburn, Lancashire, is alleged to have called for the elimination of political leaders, with the Prime Minister and his predecessor at the "top of the list".

Preston Crown Court was told yesterday that Kanmi posted two messages on a jihadi website in which he claimed to be the leader of al-Qaeda in Britain, an offshoot of the terror group.

In one of the postings made in January 2008, he was said to have compiled a list of aims, which included "the elimination of political leaders and top of the list Mr Blair and Mr Brown. As God said: 'Kill the nonbelievers'."

Another objective was "huge attacks, God willing, on centres and places of benefit to the crusaders".

The message, shown to the jury of eight men and four women, concluded: "We invite all Muslims in Britain to join us and prepare themselves for martyrdom operations and not lose this golden chance. We also invite all Muslims in Europe to make us victorious, with men and money, until the British government withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan."

The message was signed "Leadership of al Qaida in Britain".

Kanmi, of Cromwell Street, denies two counts of soliciting to murder Mr Brown and Mr Blair.

He also pleaded not guilty to professing to belong to a terrorist organisation, namely al-Qaeda, inviting support for the same organisation , disseminating terrorist publications and collecting or making a record of information likely to be useful to a terrorist.

Kanmi was arrested at Manchester airport as he waited to board a flight to Helsinki on 14 August last year. He was found to have three electronic storage devices in his suitcase and a mobile phone which contained terror-related information which he intended to distribute in Finland, the prosecution say.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.