A teenager, her sister and her mother all planned to launch a terrorist attack in central London which they dubbed the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’, a court has heard.
In Britain’s first alleged all-female terrorist plot, Safaa Boular, 18, was arrested as she planned a suicide attack on the British Museum, urged on by an ISIS fighter in Syria that she planned to marry, a jury was told yesterday.
After her plan was thwarted last April, she is said to have encouraged her older sister, Rizlaine, 22, to take it over.
Rizlaine was taken on a reconnaissance trip by her mother, Mina Dich, 43, who drove her around the major landmarks in the Westminster area, the Old Bailey heard.
The pair went with her to purchase a packet of knives, the largest of which had a 6ins blade, on April 26 last year.
A rucksack was also bought and prosecutors said that was part of preparations for an attack the following day, which they had code-named the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told the court.
Sisters Safaa (left in court sketch) and Rizlaine Boular (right) allegedly plotted a terror attack in London. The court heard they referred to the planned atrocity as ‘The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’
The sisters, pictured at a younger age, were allegedly supported by their mother Mina Dich
Mr Atkinson told the court: ‘All preparation for Rizlaine’s attack followed discussions with her sister who encouraged and supported her every step towards the kind of terrorist outrage that the timely intervention of the authorities had stopped Safaa from undertaking herself.’
In a conversation by telephone from prison, recorded by the authorities, Safaa told her sister: ‘I never knew I’d be around at that time but think I will be around at that time peace be upon us, and then the world will rock.’
Her sister replied: ‘Wooo! Rooockk. Rock. Rock.’
Rizlaine said: ‘It’s going to be like me like and a few sisters and stuff and we’re just going to have fun. It’s basically going to be like a tea party and stuff.’
Mother Mina Dich took Rizlaine on a reconnaissance trip of potential attack sites, a jury at the Old Bailey was told
Mr Atkinson said the pair went on to make several references to jannah [paradise] and ‘referred to a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and Alice in Wonderland.’
‘The prosecution alleges that the expression ‘party’ was being used as code for a terrorist attack,’ Mr Atkinson added.
‘The significance of these conversations is to demonstrate the extent of Safaa Boular’s determination, when talking to her mother and her sister.
‘Her sister was doing what she had wanted to do herself, and what she had been actively engaged in planning to do until she was physically prevented from doing so.’
Mina Dich accepts that she provided ‘positive assistance and support’ to Rizlaine in the knowledge that she would commit an attack using knives, but claims she did not understand that the attack would involve fatality or injury, the court heard.
Safaa Boular is accused planning an attack on the British Museum, so that she could join her fiancee in paradise.
Boular had allegedly planned to wear a suicide belt in Syria with her ISIS husband and ‘depart the world holding hands, and taking others with them in an act of terrorism,’ the Old Bailey was told.
But when he was killed in Syria, she switched her plans to Britain.
Younger sister Safaa had planned to marry ISIS fighter Naweed Hussain (pictured) in Syria but turned her attention to attacking Britain after he was killed, prosecutors say
It is claimed that she conducted a relationship with Naweed Hussain, with a view to marrying him, and made plans to travel to Syria by booking a flight to Istanbul.
After they had been speaking for two or three months they had declared their love for each other and resolved to marry and to have children together, the Old Bailey was told.
‘However, there was nothing conventional about their relationship,’ Duncan Atkinson QC, prosecuting, said.
Her support for him ‘would extend to each of them donning a suicide belt,’ he added.
‘Together they would, as Hussain put it, ‘depart this world holding hands and taking others with them in an act of terrorism.’
When he was killed on April 4 last year, she allegedly arranged to receive weapons in order to conduct an attack in the UK, and received instructions on how to train and use weapons.
Investigators listened in to calls Boular made from Medway Secure Training Unit in Kent
Mr Atkinson, told the Old Bailey: ‘Based on her preparation and discussion, it appears she planned to launch an attack against members of the public, selected largely at random, in the environs of that cultural jewel and most popular of tourist attractions, the British Museum, in central London.
‘This would have been an attack that would, at the very least have caused widespread panic, but was intended to involve the infliction of serious injury and death.
‘Whilst Naweed Hussain had undoubtedly done much to encourage Safaa Boular in these plans, the intention underlying those plans was always hers. She was encouraged, but she was willing; she was supported but she was resolute.
‘Her determination in this regard was, if anything, strengthen after she learned that Naweed Hussain had been killed on April 4 2017.
‘With positive encouragement from her mother and her sister, Rizlaine, Safaa wanted to reunited with her fiancee in paradise by becoming a martyr.’
Joel Bennathan QC, defending, told the court: ‘Safaa Boular was groomed when she was a child. She was sexually groomed, someone who was groomed to be radicalised.’
Safaa showed no emotion as the trial began yesterday, occasionally flicking her hair behind her ears during the hearing. She denies two charges of preparing acts of terrorism. The trial continues.
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