Man charged after soldier’s death

A woman views flowers and notes left in memory of Lee Rigby, of the British Army's 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, outside an army barracks near the scene of his killing in Woolwich, London.

A woman views flowers and notes left in memory of Lee Rigby, of the British Army's 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, outside an army barracks near the scene of his killing in Woolwich, London.

Published May 30, 2013

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London - Police have charged a man with murder in the killing of a British soldier in a suspected Islamic extremist attack in broad daylight on a London street.

Michael Adebowale, 22, was charged late on Wednesday by counterterrorism officers and will appear in court on Thursday, police said. He is one of two main suspects in the killing of Lee Rigby, 25, who was struck by a car and stabbed to death last week near his barracks in south-east London's Woolwich district.

Gruesome images that emerged after the attack showed two men wielding bloody knives and meat cleavers. Both men were shot and wounded by police.

Suspect Michael Adebolajo, 28, remains in hospital in stable condition. Adebowale was discharged from a hospital on Tuesday and taken into custody. Adebowale also was charged with a firearms offence related to possessing a revolver with the intent “to cause persons to believe that unlawful violence would be used”, police said in a statement announcing the charges.

The charges, coming just hours after police said Rigby's autopsy showed he died from “multiple incised wounds”, shed further light on the frenzied attack.

Witnesses reported seeing the soldier struck by a car, then set upon by two men wielding long knives and cleavers. Adebolajo, bloodied and clutching a cleaver, was seen in a video boasting about the attack and railing against the government.

The attack has raised questions about whether Britain's intelligence services could have done more to prevent Rigby's murder. British officials said the two main suspects had been known to them for some time as part of previous investigations.

Kenyan police have said they believed Adebolajo, a British citizen, had earlier associated with a radical Kenyan Muslim cleric who tried to help him join an al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in neighbouring Somalia.

Police said an inquest on Rigby's death will open on Friday. In Britain, inquests are conducted to establish the circumstances surrounding unexpected or violent deaths.

Ten people have been arrested in the case, including the two main suspects. Two were released and several others have been set free on bail pending further inquiries.

One of the men arrested for questioning in the case released a statement through his lawyer on Wednesday proclaiming his innocence. Hayden Allen, 21, said he wanted to send his condolences to Rigby's family.

“My family are wholly uninvolved,” said Allen, who has not been charged and is free on bail. “I ask that the police continue to investigate and that my family be allowed without harassment to continue their lives.”

Rigby's murder has raised racial enmities in many parts of England, with far-right groups mobilising to protest. The English Defence League, a right-wing group with strong anti-Islam leanings, has held a series of protests, while Muslim community organisations have reported a surge in attacks and harassment.

One mosque in the northern England town of Grimsby was firebombed, and the word “ISLAM” was daubed in big red letters across the Royal Air Force Bomber Command memorial in London's Green Park, near Buckingham Palace.

Two people have been charged in the arson attack. It was unclear who was responsible for the graffiti. - Sapa-AP

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