TerrorismWould-be U.K. terrorist planned to behead a British soldier on a London street

Nineteen-year-old Brusthom Ziamani has been sentenced to twenty-seven years in prison after being found guilty of planning to behead a British soldier on the streets of London, an act similar to Michael Adebolajo’s killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby. Ziamani was arrested on an east London street last August when a counterterrorism officer stopped him. On him, Ziamani had an Islamic State (ISIS) flag, a knife, and a hammer, having earlier researched the location of nearby Army cadet bases.

“Had the defendant not been arrested on August 19th then within a matter of hours he would’ve used the hammer and knife to carry out the intention he had expressed and for which he had so determinedly prepared,” said Judge Timothy Pontius. “The result being that a horrifying act of savagery had again been committed on the streets of London in imitation of Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, an act this defendant had explicitly admired, it is entirely justifiable that the defendant was looking for another Lee Rigby.”

The Telegraph reports that Ziamani lived with his Jehovah’s Witness parents before converting to Islam. After being kicked out of the home, he turned to extremists in the radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun (ALM), which gave him money, clothes, and a place to live. Ziamani also attended ALM talks in the basement of a Halal sweet shop in Whitechapel. Months after joining ALM, he posted comments on Facebook that he was “willing to die in the cause of Allah” and saying: “Sharia law on its way on our streets. We will implement it, it’s part of our religion.”

Ziamani was first arrested in June 2014 when police found a ripped-up letter in his jeans pocket in which he wrote about mounting an attack on a British soldier and his desire to die a martyr. Ziamani was released and referred to the counterterrorism program, Prevent, but it failed to deradicalize him. Prior to his final arrest, Ziamani threatened to “wipe out” his 17-year-old girlfriend after she left him. A few hours before his arrested, he showed her his weapons and said he was going to kill a soldier. Ziamani has since denied a charge of preparing to commit an act of terrorism on or before 20 August 2014. He explained his Facebook postings as an attempt to “fit in” with ALM because they provided him housing.

“This case starkly illustrates one of the threats we currently face in the U.K.,” said Commander Richard Walton, from the Counterterrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police Service. “Ziamani was an impressionable young man who became radicalized then rapidly developed an extremist, violent mindset. Over a series of months he ultimately developed a desire to carry out a terrorist attack on British soldiers.”

Like Adebolajo and Adebowale, Ziamani had fallen “under the malign influence” of ALM, said Pontius. Older extremists in the group recognized “intellectually immature” and impressionable young men as “fertile ground for hardened extremists to sow their evil seed,” Pontius said, but added that Ziamani, who had taken the name Mujahid Karim, was a “willing student all too ready to absorb and adopt their teaching.”

Ziamani’s 27-year extended sentence includes a twenty-two year custodial term, of which he will serve a minimum of fourteen years and eight months before being eligible for parole.