Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale

File:Michael-Adebolajo-and-Michael-Adebowale.jpg

Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are the two British extremists who were convicted of the brutal murder of Lee Rigby in 2014. Adebolajo was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Adebowale received a minimum of forty-five years.

Background

Adebolajo

Michael Adebolajo studied sociology at Greenwich university. According to radical cleric Anjem Choudary, he became affiliated with Al-Muhajiroun after converting to Islam in 2003. Adebolajo has a history of radical Islamic activities, including an arrest during a protest against the trial of fellow Al-Muhajiroun member Mizanur Rahman. He was also arrested in 2010 after entering Kenya with a false passport. No charges were ever filed, but Boniface Mwaniki from Kenya's anti-terror unit said he believed that Adebolajo was planning to train with the jihadist group Al-Shabaab.

Adebowale

Michael Adebowale attended an unnamed college in Greenwich, believed to be GSM London. Media reports surfaced claiming that he attended Greenwich university with Adebolajo. The university released a statement clarifying that they had no records of him attending.

Murder of Lee Rigby

Shortly before 14:20 on 22 May 2013 in Wellington Street, southeast London, a British soldier named Lee Rigby was knocked down by a Vauxhall Tigra. Adebowale and Adebolajo then got out of the car and began stabbing Rigby, before Adebolajo tried to behead him with a cleaver. A cub scout leader named Ingrid Loyau-Kennet tried to administer first aid, then engaged Adebolajo in conversation after discovering that Rigby was dead. Adebolajo told her that Rigby had killed Muslims in Iraq. A video taken by a passer-by shows Adebolajo saying that they would continue to fight until the British government pulled their troops out of Afghanistan. Unarmed police officers were dispatched to the scene. Reports that one of the attackers had a gun resulted in armed officers being dispatched and shooting off Adebowale's thumb when he threatened them with a revolver, later deemed to be non-functioning. Adebolajo was also shot at the scene.

Legal proceedings

On September 27, 2013, Michael Adebowale was charged with murder and possession of a firearm, while Adebolajo was charged with the attempted murder of two police officers in addition to one charge of murder. Three months later, both were convicted and sent to prison following a scuffle with security guards. In 2014, an appeal for a reduced sentence from Adebowale was rejected.

Further charge against Adebowale

In October 2019, Adebowale pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm after punching a nurse at Broadmoor Hospital, where he was being treated for paranoid schizophrenia. The nurse, Jason Taplin, had asked him to turn down the volume on a TV he was watching. A judge accepted that Adebowale had heard voices in his head before the attack, giving him an additional sentence of eight months to be served after his previous sentence of 45 years.

Videos

File:London police shoot attackers who killed British soldier Lee Rigby (May 23, 2013)

File:Rawfootage of Woolwich Attack

File:Inside the mind of Lee Rigby's killer Michael Adebolajo