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LequteMan
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Two British Muslim converts were found guilty of murder on Thursday after hacking a soldier to death in broad daylight on a London street in a gruesome killing that horrified the nation.
The murder, magnified by a video footage, provoked a rise in hate crimes against Muslims in Britain, anti-Islamist street protests and government promises of tougher action on radical Islamist preachers.
jury at London's Old Bailey Criminal Court took just over 90 minutes to unanimously find Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, guilty of killing Rigby, 25, an Afghan war veteran, near an army barracks in Woolwich, Southeast London, on May 22.
The court heard that the two drove around the area looking for a soldier and run over Rigby, attacking his unconscious body with knives and a meat cleaver and tried to behead him.
They then dragged his corpse to the middle of the road where Adebolajo asked a bystander to video them, brandishing their weapons with their hands covered with blood, as he calmly explained what he had done to the shock of startled passers-by.
Further dramatic footage captured the two men trying to ambush armed police as they arrived the scene.
During the trial, the pair never denied killing Rigby, but Adebolajo argued that the act should not be considered a murder but an act of war in response to Britain's Foreign Policy.
After the men were convicted of murder, Rigby's family told reporters outside the court that justice had been served.
“Unfortunately, no amount of justice can bring Lee back. These people have taken him away from us forever," they said in a prepared statement.
The Woolwich attack was the first killing by Islamist militants in London since four young British Muslims murdered 52 people in al Qaeda-inspired suicide bombings on the capital's transport network in July 2005.
The Britain's MI5 Domestic Intelligence Agency is facing an investigation into whether it could have done more to stop the Woolwich attack, with a parliamentary committee examining what security services knew about the two men.
Both are Muslim converts by the banned organisation Al Muhajiroun, many of whose members had been convicted of terrorism offences.
Reports say the two were known to MI5, but that they were not considered serious threats.
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, described Rigby's killing as an act of terrorism and a "betrayal of Islam".
The murder, magnified by a video footage, provoked a rise in hate crimes against Muslims in Britain, anti-Islamist street protests and government promises of tougher action on radical Islamist preachers.
jury at London's Old Bailey Criminal Court took just over 90 minutes to unanimously find Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, guilty of killing Rigby, 25, an Afghan war veteran, near an army barracks in Woolwich, Southeast London, on May 22.
The court heard that the two drove around the area looking for a soldier and run over Rigby, attacking his unconscious body with knives and a meat cleaver and tried to behead him.
They then dragged his corpse to the middle of the road where Adebolajo asked a bystander to video them, brandishing their weapons with their hands covered with blood, as he calmly explained what he had done to the shock of startled passers-by.
Further dramatic footage captured the two men trying to ambush armed police as they arrived the scene.
During the trial, the pair never denied killing Rigby, but Adebolajo argued that the act should not be considered a murder but an act of war in response to Britain's Foreign Policy.
After the men were convicted of murder, Rigby's family told reporters outside the court that justice had been served.
“Unfortunately, no amount of justice can bring Lee back. These people have taken him away from us forever," they said in a prepared statement.
The Woolwich attack was the first killing by Islamist militants in London since four young British Muslims murdered 52 people in al Qaeda-inspired suicide bombings on the capital's transport network in July 2005.
The Britain's MI5 Domestic Intelligence Agency is facing an investigation into whether it could have done more to stop the Woolwich attack, with a parliamentary committee examining what security services knew about the two men.
Both are Muslim converts by the banned organisation Al Muhajiroun, many of whose members had been convicted of terrorism offences.
Reports say the two were known to MI5, but that they were not considered serious threats.
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, described Rigby's killing as an act of terrorism and a "betrayal of Islam".
