British Muslim woman convicted of penning poems about beheadings
By ARTHUR MARTIN
An airport worker who wrote poems about beheadings is the first woman to be found guilty under new terror laws.
Samina Malik, who liked to call herself a "lyrical terrorist", called for attacks on the West and described "poisoned bullets" capable of killing an entire street in her poetry.
The 23-year-old Muslim wrote of her desire to become a martyr and listed her favourite videos as the "beheading ones".
Described as a "committed Islamic extremist", Malik, a shop assistant at Heathrow, hoarded an extensive collection of terrorism manuals, the Old Bailey heard.
She was a member of an extremist group linked to Omar Bakri Mohammed, a hate preacher who fled to Lebanon from Britain two years ago.
Yesterday a jury found her guilty of possessing documents likely to be used for terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000, by a majority of ten to one, after deliberating for 19 hours.
Malik, who wore a black head scarf, wept as the verdict was read out.
Earlier she was cleared of the more serious offence of having articles for a terrorist purpose.
Judge Peter Beaumont told Malik that she was an enigma.
He granted her bail which amounted to a house arrest. But he warned her a custodial sentence was inevitable.
Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, told the court the defendant liked to be known as the "lyrical terrorist" or "a stranger awaiting martyrdom".
"She is a committed Islamic extremist, who supports terrorism and terrorists.
"She had a library of material that she had collected for terrorist purposes.
"That collection would be extremely useful for someone planning terrorist activity."
The court heard how police raided her home in Southall, West London, after an email from her was found on the computer of a terror suspect in October last year.
She had a profile on the social networking website Hi-5, where she called for the execution of "depraved" Westerners .
The British-born Muslim listed her interests as helping the Mujahideen "in any way I can".
She also wrote of how she enjoyed video messages from Osama Bin Laden and "videos that showed massacres of the kuffars", or non-Muslims.