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Interpol issues arrest warrant for ‘White Widow,’ British woman suspected in Kenya mall attack

 

AFP/Getty Images: A photo of fake South African passport of Samantha Lewthwaite released by Kenyan police in December 2011. Samantha Lewthwaite, nicknamed 'The white widow', widow of suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay, who blew himself up on a London Underground train on July 7, 2005, killing 26 people, may be among the members of the terrorist cell behind the Nairobi mall massacre.

Interpol has issued a worldwide arrest notice for “white widow” Samantha Lewthwaite at the request of Kenyan authorities.
It was believed Ms. Lewthwaite might have been one of the Al-Shabab terrorists who attacked the Nairobi Westgate mall last weekend and killed at least 72 in a four-day siege. Some of the witnesses reported a white woman as being among the terrorists.
Kenyan authorities had previously wanted Ms. Lewthwaite in connection with other terrorist charges.
The Interpol “Red Notice” — or arrest notice — said she was wanted by Kenya on charges of being in possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony dating back to December 2011.
The notice was issued Friday, just days after the Westgate mall siege ended.
“By requesting an INTERPOL Red Notice, Kenya has activated a global ‘tripwire’ for this fugitive,” said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble.
“Through the INTERPOL Red Notice, Kenyan authorities have ensured that all 190 member countries are aware of the danger posed by this woman, not just across the region but also worldwide.”
A schoolgirl who saw her nine-year-old brother shot dead by terrorists in Nairobi has told her teachers she saw a white woman among the attackers.
Poorvi Jain, 12, said the woman was accompanied by two boys aged just 15 or 16, one of whom was wearing a bandanna and carrying a guitar case from which he produced a gun.
Her account is the latest piece of evidence which suggests that British terrorism suspect Samantha Lewthwaite may have been part of the al-Shabaab gang that killed as many as 130 people, including at least six Britons, during a four-day siege.
Lewthwaite, 29, is the widow of the 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay. She has been on the run in east Africa for two years after allegedly plotting to attack Western targets in Kenya.
Dr. Geetika Saxena, Miss Jain’s head teacher, said: “Poorvi said she saw these men just going around 360 degrees with their guns. She said they were just not considering anyone, if the bullet doesn’t touch you, you’re lucky, otherwise that’s it.
“She described the men and says she saw a white lady.
“She said she saw her there with two other men. One boy was wearing a bandanna and carrying a guitar case out of which he pulled a gun.”
Miss Jain’s brother Pramsu was shot dead by armed Islamists as he watched his sister take part in a cookery competition organised by a radio station in the rooftop car park of the mall.
Meanwhile a court in Mombasa, Kenya, trying a Briton with alleged links to Lewthwaite heard yesterday that bomb-making equipment was found in the man’s home.
The equipment was similar to that used by the London suicide bombers on July 7, 2005.
Police discovered the items in the home of Jermaine Grant, an alleged accomplice of Lewthwaite, after his arrest in December 2011.

HandoutPhoto of Samantha Lewthwaite with Jermaine Lindsay. Samantha married Germaine Lindsay, who would later detonate a bomb in London's King's Cross Tube Station killing 26 people and himself, in July 2005.

It raises the intriguing possibility that Lewthwaite may have learned bomb-making skills from her husband and passed on her knowledge to Grant. The 30-year-old Muslim convert is facing charges related to terrorism, including the possession of bomb-making materials. Lewthwaite was charged in absentia on similar counts to Grant, including the possession of explosive materials and conspiracy to cause an explosion.
Police believe that they were members of a terror cell planning attacks on tourist targets along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast. Metropolitan Police officer Robert Garrick told the court he saw items in Grant’s kitchen – including flasks, burners and a light bulb – that were similar to those used in the July 7 London bombings in which 52 people died.
Exhibits presented to the court included chemicals, mobile phones, sim cards, pliers, batteries and wires.
Mr Garrick told the court that “put together in a particular way” the chemicals found in the house “can be used to make explosives.”
Grant denies all the charges lodged against him.
It also emerged that Lewthwaite used an assumed South African identity to take out bank loans and rent property in Johannesburg before fleeing the country two years ago.
She used the alias Natalie Faye Webb to rent at least three properties and ran up debts of pounds 5,300, the eNews Channel Africa reported.
According to credit records, she was listed as living in the city’s predominantly South Asian neighbourhood of Mayfair for four years.
In August 2012 a Johannesburg court issued an order against her for defaulting on pounds 1,700 of debts with South Africa’s First Rand Bank.
Kenyan authorities issued a wanted notice for Lewthwaite after she entered the country from Tanzania’s northeastern Lunga and Namanga border posts in February and August 2011. She had been using a South African passport under the name of Natalie Faye Webb. A local terror expert and academic said earlier this week that she regularly travelled to South Africa and stayed in South Asian suburbs of Johannesburg earlier this year.
A British security source quoted by Reuters said it was possible Lewthwaite was involved in the Nairobi siege. “It is a possibility. But nothing definitive or conclusive yet,” the source said.