A British terrorism suspect has been deported to the UK after serving a lengthy prison sentence in Kenya.
Jermaine Grant, 41, was arrested in London on Thursday after flying in from the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
He was jailed in 2011 after bomb-making equipment was found in his apartment in Mombasa, a Kenyan coastal city.
It is believed that Grant shared the apartment with Samantha Lewthwaitewho is nicknamed “White Widow” and is wanted in connection with the July 7 bombings in London.
After his arrest in 2011, Kenyan police accused Grant of planning to bomb tourist hotels on the country’s coast.
In 2019, he was acquitted by a court of conspiracy in relation to the alleged plot, but convicted of possessing bomb-making material.
On Friday, Britain’s Metropolitan Police confirmed that Grant had been detained in London under the Terrorism Act.
In a statement, police said: “We can confirm that on August 8, officers from the Met Police [a] 41-year-old man recalled to prison for breaching licence conditions relating to a previous conviction.
“He was arrested at Heathrow Airport when he returned to the UK on a flight from Kenya. The conditions of the man’s licence were revoked in August 2005 after the first offence.”
Grant was also arrested on suspicion of membership of al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group, the Metropolitan Police said.
He remains in police custody.
Ms Lewthwaite has not been seen since 2011 and is wanted by police in both Kenya and the UK.
She was nicknamed “White Widow” after her marriage to London suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay.
This converted Muslim, who spent her childhood in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, remains one of the most wanted people in Kenya.
She is suspected of having ties to al-Shabaab, a militant group from Somalia, and of having carried out a series of attacks.
Grant is believed to have been radicalised after serving time in prison with Richard Reid, a known extremist known as the “shoe bomber”.
Reid is serving a life sentence in the US for a failed plot to blow up a transatlantic airliner with explosives in his shoe.
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