Kenya News: UK citizen charged in bomb plot
29-year-old British citizen Jermaine Grant, stands inside the dock at the Momabasa Law court on January 12, 2012 court as he awaits the opening of his trial, on charges of possessing explosive materials and conspiracy to commit a felony following his arrest in December 2011 in the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa.
Today, four people were charged with handling bomb-making materials in Kenya with the intent to explode a bomb. They all denied it, and denied links to Somalia's Al-Shabaab, which has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya.
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The main accused was Briton Jermaine Grant, who already has a rap sheet: he has already been sentenced to jail time for being in Kenya illegally and giving false information, BBC reported.
That may not have been his only conviction. According to Capital FM, the Sunday Times paraphrased his half-brother: "Grant had been convicted of rape when he was 14 and sent to Feltham young offenders’ institution for seven years."
But his mother said that prison is what turned him into a radical.
Before that he had no links to Islam; none of our family are Muslims.
ABC noted, "He was reportedly radicalized in the same U.K. prison as convicted 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid."