A 23-year-old who called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" has become the first woman in the UK to be convicted under the Terrorism Act. Samina Malik from Southall, west London, has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of owning terrorist manuals. Malik worked at WH Smith at Heathrow Airport until her arrest last October. The jury heard Malik had written extremist poems praising Osama Bin Laden, supporting martyrdom and discussing beheading. She had earlier been found not guilty of the more serious charge, under Section 57 of the Act, of possessing an article for a terrorist purpose. She denied the charges.
| "Lies! All lies!" |
| "Waaaaaah! They're onto me!" |
| "Other than you're guilty as hell, of course." |
Police said they had found a "library" of extreme Islamist literature in her bedroom including The Al-Qaeda Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook. The court also heard she had written on the back of a WH Smith till receipt: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom."
Malik said she had only called herself the Lyrical Terrorist "because it sounded cool".
| "And it made the guys all hot for me!" |
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: "Malik held violent extremist views which she shared with other like-minded people over the internet. She also tried to donate money to a terrorist group.
"She had the ideology, ability and determination to access and download material, which could have been useful to terrorists. Merely possessing this material is a serious criminal offence."
There goes the UK market for Paladin Press...
Malik was bailed under what the judge described as "house arrest" until her sentencing on 6 December. He warned her that "all sentencing options" remained open to him.