Willesden raid: Three women charged in terror plot
Harlesden Road after the raids. Picture: Nathalie Raffray - Credit: Archant
Three women involved in the Willesden police raid have appeared in court charged in connection with what is thought to be the first all-female alleged British-based terror plot.
Khawla Barghouthi, 20, of Harlesden Road, Rizlaine Boular, 21, and her mother Mina Dich, 43 were charged in relation to the alleged planning of a suspected knife attack in Westminster.
The three appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today flanked by three policewomen and three suited officials.
Elite armed officers swooped on Barghouthi’s home on April 27, where they arrested her and shot Boular.
Boular, of Mount Pleasant, was arrested three days later at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington when she was discharged.
Boular’s mother, Dich, of St George’s Wharf, was arrested in Kent on the day of the raid in the capital.
The three women are accused of conspiring together to murder “a person or persons unknown” between April 11 and April 28 2017.
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Boular is also charged with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts between the same dates, while Dich and Barghouthi are charged with intending to assist her.
Both Boular and Dich wore burkas and lifted their veils to show their eyes when requested to do so by chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, while Barghouthi wore a hijab.
Three teenagers who were arrested on suspicion of terror offences in an operation linked to the Harlesden Road raid were released with no further action yesterday.
The three women – two aged 18 and one 19 – were detained on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorist acts on May 1 after raids were carried out at three addresses in east London.
Two men – aged 21 and 28 – and a 16-year-old boy, arrested on April 27 either in or close to the Harlesden Road address, have also been released without charge.
The trio were remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on May 19.
