NAIROBI, Kenya – A suspect in last week’s savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 while apparently preparing to train and fight with Al Qaeda-linked Somali militants, an anti-terrorism police official said Sunday.
Michael Adebolajo was then handed over to British authorities in the East African country, another Kenyan official said.
The information surfaced as London’s Metropolitan Police said specialist firearms officers arrested another man suspected of conspiring to murder 25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby. Police did not provide details about the suspect, only saying he is 22 years old.
The latest arrest followed the detainment in London late Saturday of three others, aged 21 to 28, also suspected in the case.
Rigby, who has served in Afghanistan, was run over and stabbed with knives in the Woolwich area in southeast London on Wednesday afternoon as he was walking near his barracks.
Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are the main suspects in the killing and remained under armed guard in separate London hospitals after police shot them at the scene.
In 2010, Adebolajo was arrested with five others near Kenya’s border with Somalia, Kenya’s anti-terrorism police unit head Boniface Mwaniki told The Associated Press. Police believed Adebolajo was going to work with Somali militant group al-Shabab.
Mwaniki said that Adebolajo was deported after his arrest in 2010. Kenya’s government spokesman said he was arrested under a different name, and taken to court before being handed to British authorities.
