Michael Adebolajo: ‘I Killed Lee Rigby Because I am A Soldier… Of Allah’!

'I killed Lee Rigby because I am a soldier... of Allah'
Michael Adebolajo claimed he begged Allah to let him kill a soldier (Picture: Elizabeth Cook/PA)
A self-proclaimed ‘soldier of Islam’ claimed he stabbed Drummer Lee Rigby to death after begging Allah to let him kill a soldier.
Michael Adebolajo, who also said he loved al-Qaeda, described to a court how he planned the attack on the fusilier as a military operation.
The 28-year-old claimed he was prepared to be shot dead by armed police to become a martyr and enter paradise.
Adebolajo also insisted he had never met any al-Qaeda members but added: ‘I love them. They’re my brothers.’
Father-of-six Adebolajo, who is on trial for murder alongside Michael Adebowale, 22, was giving evidence for the defence at the Old Bailey.
Undated Ministry of Defence handout photo of Fusilier Lee Rigby as the prosecution case in the trial of two men accused of murdering the soldier is due to open. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Friday November 29, 2013. Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are charged with killing the Fusilier as he walked back to Woolwich Barracks in south-east London on May 22. They are also each accused of attempting to murder a police officer on the same day, and conspiracy to murder a police officer on or before that day. Yesterday the jury selection process began in wood-lined Court Two at the Old Bailey, where potential jurors were each asked four questions to determine their ability to try the case. Fourteen possible jurors were selected from a larger pool, and it is expected that the 12 final jurors will be selected today, before the prosecution case opens. See PA story COURTS Woolwich. Photo credit should read: MoD/Crown Copy/PA Wire  NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Victim: Lee Rigby (Picture: MoD/PA)
He said the night before the attack he ‘prayed to Allah’ that their victim should be military rather than civilian.
But he insisted he was the one who killed 25-year-old Drummer Rigby, who was dead by the time Adebowale joined in the attack outside Woolwich barracks on May 22.
Challenged that Dmr Rigby posed no threat, the defendant replied: ‘He was a soldier and I am a soldier.’
He said some people might not recognize them as soldiers because they did not wear fatigues or train in the Brecon Beacons but he added: ‘We are still soldiers in the sight of Allah as a mujahid.’
Adebolajo, from Romford, east London, and Adebowale, from Greenwich, south-east London, deny murder. The trial continues.

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