London, Oct 8 (IANS) An Islamic terrorist serving a 22-year prison sentence has been convicted of attempting to murder a prison officer in an Islamic terrorist attack at the top-security Whitemoor jail in Cambridgeshire on January 9.
Brusthom Ziamani, 25, and fellow inmate Baz Hockton, 26, have been found guilty at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, of attempting to murder a prison officer.
Both the inmates lured Prison Officer (PO) Neil Trundle towards a cupboard before attacking him while wearing fake suicide vests.
Ziamani charged at staff, revealing his fake bomb vest to them when they intervened to help their colleague, the court heard.
Both the vests were created using elastic from a pair of underwear, bottles, batteries and pressurised cans.
CCTV footage shown during the trial showed Ziamani and Hockton following PO Trundle as he walked towards the store cupboard on January 9.
The duo used makeshift stabbing instruments, lumps of twisted metals and a homemade shank, leaving PO Trundle covered in blood with slash wounds to his chest, arms and neck.
Officer Trundle was left covered in blood from multiple cuts after Ziamani asked him if he could replace a broken spoon. The prison officer went to unlock a store cupboard, followed by the inmates.
Providing evidence, Mr Trundle said he had never had any problems with Ziamani before.
He said: ‘There had been no confrontation or cross words, no indication that there was going to be any issues between us.
As he approached the store cupboard he could see one of the men ‘in my peripheral view’.
He added: “Before I knew it I was on the floor on my back. I wasn’t sure how I ended up on the floor. I did not know what position I was in but I was on the floor and I was being attacked”.
The alarm was sounded in the prison and Prison Officer Georgina Ibbotson was one of the first on the scene. She said she tried to calm Ziamani but he punched her in the face so hard she sank to her knees and thought she was dying.
Ziamani, who was serving a sentence for plotting to murder a British Army officer at the time of the attack, was carrying a four-page handwritten letter detailing his fanatical beliefs, the court heard.
He was arrested on his way to behead a British soldier in July 2014, after researching cadet bases in south London online and writing extremist posts on social media platforms.
His mission was foiled when an anti-terrorist officer spotted him in an east London street with a 12-inch knife and a black Islamic flag and he was convicted of preparing a terrorist act.
But the fanatic was undeterred by his sentence of 22 years behind bars, and instead became intent on killing any ‘agent of the British state.’
He continued writing jihadist texts and reading ISIS propaganda in his cell, calling on readers to ‘slay kuffar’ (non-believers) and ‘march to death with confidence.’
–IANS
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