Brit terror suspect linked to White Widow learns whether he'll be freed
A British terror suspect linked to the fugitive White Widow has had his release from prison blocked, the Mirror can reveal. Jermaine Grant - accused of being an associate of terror mastermind Samantha Lewthwaite - has been in a UK prison since August when he was deported from Kenya.
He spent 13 years behind bars for terror offences in Africa but was detained at Heathrow and arrested on suspicion of being a member of Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. He was recalled to prison for breaching licence conditions over a 1999 rape conviction. Grant was automatically put up for parole last month, but the Mirror has learnt his release was denied.
Now he could remain behind bars until 2027 unless he is deemed fit to be freed. A document makes no reference to allegations that he was part of a terror cell.
But it states: "After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and on licence and the evidence presented in the dossier, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public. The panel considered that Mr Grant was appropriately located in custody where outstanding levels of risk could be addressed. He will be eligible for another parole review in due course."
Muslim convert Grant, originally from Newham, East London, was handed five years for the rape in the capital and was freed in 2003. But he broke the terms of his licence by travelling to Kenya. He was arrested in 2011 when police found chemicals, switches and a bomb-making manual at his home in Mombasa.
Police stormed a flat in Mombasa where he was said to be staying with Lewthwaite, the fugitive wife of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay. Lewthwaite remains at large and in 2021 it was claimed she was fighting with jihadis in Yemen. Originally from Aylesbury, Bucks, Lewthwaite – the daughter of a former British Army soldier who battled IRA terrorists – converted to Islam when she was 17.
Images taken during her time at Aylesbury's Grange School show the seemingly normal girl wearing her school uniform for school pictures. But as a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist clerics. Lewthwaite was radicalised after meeting extremist Germaine Lindsay, 19, and the couple married in 2002.
Lindsay was one of four suicide bombers who detonated devices on three London Underground trains and a bus on July 7, 2005, killing 56 people and injuring 700. Lewthwaite, a pregnant mum-of-one at the time, said afterwards: 'I totally condemn and am horrified by the atrocities.
"I am the wife of Germaine Lindsay, and never predicted or imagined that he was involved in such horrific activities. He was a loving husband and father. I am trying to come to terms with the recent events. My whole world has fallen apart, and my thoughts are with the families of the victims of this incomprehensible devastation.'
But she was lying. She adopted a fake identity to travel to Africa where she joined the al-Shabaab terror group. Lewthwaite was named as a suspect in a grenade attack against tourists watching the Euros in 2012 at the Jericho bar in Kenya's port city of Mombasa. Three people were killed and 25 injured.
The following year Interpol issued a Red Notice arrest warrant for her after she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall massacre in Nairobi. She has also been linked to the Riverside terror attack in Nairobi in January 2019 during which a member of the SAS helped save hundreds of lives when he charged into gunfire to rescue trapped civilians.
Before his deportation from Kenya, the Mirror understands Grant was visited by British intelligence officers in Nairobi's maximum security Kamiti Prison. Documentation - including passport photos and identification papers - was arranged during the prison cell meeting.
He was flown from the African country on a Kenyan Airways flight before being arrested at Heathrow Airport. Sources confirmed he would be "debriefed" about his relationship with Brit terrorist Lewthwaite. They also say UK officials will also unpick his journey to Kenya, in which he is said to have travelled through Somalia.
Cops allegedly found hydrogen peroxide, AA batteries and electrical wire at a property he shared with Lewthwaite, but she had already fled. Grant is said to have been a close associate of Lewthwaite's who was a member of Somali Islamist terror group al-Shabaab.
In a 2019 trial, he was convicted of possession of bomb-making materials, but the court acquitted him of conspiracy over the alleged plot. He was given a four-year sentence after already having been given a nine-year sentence at an earlier trial for using forged documents to obtain Kenyan citizenship.
When Grant was jailed his lawyer Chacha Mwita said there were "screaming contradictions, inconsistencies and lack of corroboration" in the prosecution case. And insiders deny that he has any relationship with Lewthwaite, claiming it was a bogus claim used to boost the prosecution case.
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