Van attacker meant to kill Muslims: Prosecutors

Monitoring Desk

LONDON: The man charged over a terrorist attack in London last June meant to kill as many Muslims as possible by plowing into a group of worshippers with a van, crown prosecutors said in court Monday, on the first day of the accused’s trial.

Darren Osbourne, 48, has denied the charges against him, including incitement to murder and terrorism, over the attack outside Finsbury Mosque in north London on June 17, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Osborne “deliberately drove a heavy Luton box van into a group of Muslims who had gathered” near the mosque, Jonathan Rees, a senior lawyer for the prosecution, told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court.

“The evidence establishes that the defendant was trying to kill as many of the group as possible. In the event, he killed one person, a 51-year-old man called Makram Ali, and in addition injured many others, some of them seriously,” Rees added. The court heard that Osbourne hired a van in Wales and had driven from Cardiff to London a day before the attack “looking for a target”. He had initially intended to attack the al-Quds March for Palestine but changed his mind and decided to attack the mosque in Finsbury Park, according to prosecutors.

Osbourne also wrote a note — discovered in the van used in the assault — discussing his motivation for the attack. It mentioned the terror attacks that occurred in previous months in London and Manchester. As well as taunting London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Labour Party leader, the note stated that “Islam’s ideology does not belong here”.