A female student has been found guilty in a London court today of trying to murder a British politician in revenge for him voting for the Iraq war.
Roshonara Choudhry (21) knifed former Treasury Minister Stephen Timms twice in the stomach during a regular monthly advice surgery at an east London community centre in May.
She had been converted to violence by a radical preacher being hunted in Yemen, a security source told Reuters.
Choudhry attacked the Labour politician as a "punishment" and "to get revenge for the people of Iraq", prosecutor William Boyce had told the Old Bailey court in central London.
The decision to go to war in 2003 was the most controversial episode of the former Labour government ousted in May, provoking big protests and accusations that the then prime minister, Tony Blair, had deceived the public about the reasons for the invasion.
The court heard how the 21-year-old smiled and pretended she was going to shake hands with the former minister, who was elected to parliament in 1994, before stabbing him with a kitchen knife.
"I attempted to push away the second lunge but was not successful," Mr Timms told the court. "I retreated into the gents' toilet and lifted up my jumper and realised there was quite a lot of blood there so I realised I had been stabbed."
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne said in a statement after the case: "He was extremely fortunate not to have been killed."
Mr Timms (55) has since made a full recovery following surgery.
Choudhry, from east London, refused to attend court and told her barrister Jeremy Dein she did not accept its jurisdiction, and did not wish him to challenge the prosecution case.
The security source said the student had been radicalised by listening to sermons issued online by Anwar al-Awlaki, an extremist preacher based in Yemen who is wanted by Washington for links to al-Qaeda. Awlaki, and other propagandists of the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have urged followers in the West to attack whatever targets they can find with whatever weapon is available.
Yemen has launched a major operation to capture Awlaki, who has also been linked to a failed bombing of a US-bound plane in December 2009.
Two parcel bombs intercepted last week on cargo planes in Britain and Dubai are also thought to be the work of AQAP, US and British officials say.
Agencies