Roshonara Choudhry
Encyclopedia
Roshonara Choudhry stabbed British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Stephen Timms
Stephen Timms
Stephen Creswell Timms is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for East Ham since 1994. He is a former Cabinet Minister having served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006 to 2007...

 on 14 May 2010 in an attempt to kill him.

Attack

On 14 May 2010, Timms was approached by 21-year-old Roshonara Choudhry, during his constituency surgery
Surgery (politics)
A political surgery or clinic is a term used to describe a series of one-to-one meetings. A Member of Parliament may have with his or her constituents, at which a constituent may raise issues of local concern...

 at the Beckton Globe Library in Kingsford Way, Beckton
Beckton
Beckton is part of the London Borough of Newham, England, located east of Charing Cross.Its boundaries are the A13 trunk road to the north, Barking Creek to the east, the Royal Docks to the south, and Prince Regent Lane to the west. The area around Prince Regent Lane is also known as Custom House...

, East London. She acted as though she was going to shake his hand, and then stabbed him twice in his abdomen with a 6-inch kitchen knife, before she was disarmed.

She had made "very full admissions" to the police, saying that she had been influenced by dozens of hours of sermons that she had watched of Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...

, a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It was named for al-Qaeda, and says it is subordinate to that group and its now-deceased leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen whose father was born in Yemen...

. She said her attack was to punish Timms for voting for the Iraq War, and revenge for the Iraqi people. She said she attacked Timms "Because I’m a Muslim and all Muslims are brothers and sisters", that she was "trying to kill him", and said "I wasn’t going to stop stabbing him until someone made me."

Timms suffered "potentially life-threatening" wounds–lacerations to the left lobe of his liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...

, and a perforation to his stomach. A senior police officer said he "was extremely fortunate not to have been killed". He underwent emergency surgery at the Royal London Hospital
Royal London Hospital
The Royal London Hospital was founded in September 1740 and was originally named The London Infirmary. The name changed to The London Hospital in 1748 and then to The Royal London Hospital on its 250th anniversary in 1990. The first patients were treated at a house in Featherstone Street,...

, from which he was discharged on 19 May.

Trial

Choudhry chose not to attend her trial for attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...

 at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...

, saying she did not recognize the court's jurisdiction. The prosecutor ruled out any suggestion that she suffered from a mental illness. On 2 November, Choudhry was found guilty of Timms' attempted murder. She was subsequently given a life sentence, with a recommendation that she serve a minimum jail term of 15 years.

Aftermath

After the court case, Timms said he was not bitter, but that forgiveness was not an issue until his attacker showed remorse. He was seeking the banning of incendiary material on popular internet sites "to protect other vulnerable young people from going down the same road."
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