06/12/2007

'Lyrical Terrorist' Escapes Custodial Sentence

A former Heathrow Airport worker who dubbed herself the 'Lyrical Terrorist' has been given a nine month suspended jail sentence at the Old Bailey.

Samina Malik, 23, was the first woman to be convicted under new terrorism legislation.

Described as an unlikely, but committed, Islamic extremist, Malik was found guilty of a charge under the Terrorism Act 2000 at the Old Bailey last month.

Her sentence has been suspended for 18 months, provided that she was under supervision during that time. She will also have to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work in the community.

The court had heard how Malik, who had worked at WH Smith's in Heathrow, had kept a "library" of material useful to terrorists at her family home in Townsend Road in Southall, west London.

She had also written on the back of a till receipt: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom" and had written poems called 'How To Behead' and 'The Living Martyrs'.

The prosecution also told that court that Malik had visited a website which had been linked to jailed radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza and had also stored material about weapons.

Malik told the court that she had adopted the nickname of 'Lyrical Terrorist', because she thought it was "cool" and insisted that she was not a terrorist.

(KMcA)


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