Lee Rigby killer 'was not victim of conspiracy or mistreatment' says watchdog

Killed: Fusilier Lee Rigby was killed outside Woolwich Barracks in 2013.
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Francesca Gillett15 September 2016

One of the men who killed Lee Rigby was “not the victim of a UK intelligence conspiracy or mistreatment," a watchdog has ruled.

The government ordered a report into the treatment of Michael Adebolajo, who along with Michael Adebowale killed Fusilier Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in south-east London in 2013.

Adebolajo was sentenced to a whole-life prison term and Adebowale was sentenced to life, with a minimum term of 45 years.

In a report published in 2014, the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee found that security agencies could not have foreseen or prevented the murder.

But it raised concerns about the response to Adebolajo's arrest in Kenya in November 2010 and his subsequent allegations of mistreatment - sparking a report by Intelligence Services Commissioner Sir Mark Waller, which was published on Thursday.

It concluded that Adebolajo was not the victim of a conspiracy, torture or mistreatment.

The commissioner wrote: "I found that Mr Adebolajo was most definitely not the subject of an intelligence services conspiracy and that his allegations of mistreatment at the hands of the Kenyan authorities were probably untrue.

"Indeed, I think it highly unlikely that Mr Adebolajo was mistreated by any of the Kenyan police or intelligence units which work with HMG (HM Government)."

Adebolajo flew from the UK to Kenya in October 2010. He was arrested a month later in a remote village just over 40 miles from the border with Somalia, before being returned to Britain.

UK intelligence services were not aware of or involved in the arrest, and there was no reason to think they should have been, Sir Mark's report found.

It said the response of MI5 and MI6 to the arrest and detention of Adebolajo in Kenya was "generally good".

The commissioner did not share the committee's criticism that MI6 - officially known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) - demonstrated a "deeply unsatisfactory" or "passive" approach to the case.

Sir Mark wrote: "To my mind, the disruption of Mr Adebolajo's travel to Somalia represented an effective and satisfactory outcome which served the national security interests of the UK."

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