The Central Criminal Court has heard how bomb-making equipment was bought on eBay after the ‘secret’ wife of a suspected Islamic State (IS) terrorist took out payday loans to fund her husband’s purchases.
24 year old Sana Ahmed Khan stands before the Old Bailey accused of supplying money to 25 year old Mohammed Rehman, who she married in a secret Islamic wedding ceremony in October 2013 without her parents knowing.
Rehman was arrested in May 2015, as he plotted to carry out a terrorist attack on London as the tenth anniversary of the 7/7 suicide bombings approached. Prosecutors claim Rehman was within two days of creating a fertiliser bomb, and had asked for advice on which location to attack two months previously on Twitter.
Khan received three payday loans from payday loans company QuickQuid on 17 November 2014, for £700 in total. The money was then transferred to Rehman’s account, which brought his account out of overdraft and provided him with the funds he needed.
Rehman then set up a PayPal account, and proceeded to make a number of purchases for items he could use to construct a fertiliser bomb.
Items bought on the online auction shop included: lab filter paper, instant ice packs, a heatproof glass funnel, glass stirring rods, a measuring cylinder, a glass pipette, measuring beakers, Acetone, hydrochloric acid, aluminium powder and hydrogen peroxide. He also purchased more supplies and equipment later on.
After Rehman was arrested, more than 10kg of Urea Nitrate (fertiliser) was found by police, as well as an Al Qaeda bomb-making guide. There were also handwritten ‘recipes’ for RDX, ETN and Ammonium Nitrate, which are explosives.
The trial continues at the time of writing.