Mohiussunnath Chowdhury: Alleged jihadist told undercover cop he was 'free to kill unbelievers', court told

An alleged jihadist told an undercover police officer he was free to attack one million unbelievers if he was fighting for "the pleasure of Allah", a court has heard.

Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, 28, was unwittingly caught on tape stressing the importance of an "ambush", claiming "they shouldn't know what's hit them", jurors at Woolwich Crown Court were told.

They also heard he felt "so much peace" before slashing police with a sword outside Buckingham Palace because he was "guaranteed paradise", the court heard.

Prosecutors allege Chowdhury was planning to kill members of the public at tourist attractions including London's Madame Tussauds and the Gay Pride parade last year, but did not realise he was confiding in undercover officers who had him under surveillance.

He even bragged about deceiving a jury which cleared him over the sword attack in 2017, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said.

On Monday one officer, known only as Mikael, told the court that over several months he tried to gain the defendant's trust by telling him he had a firearm and wanted to imminently carry out his own atrocity.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, he said Chowdhury wanted to do just that on "many, many occasions", but said that "one of the reasons he wouldn't tell me about his attack plan was simply because he didn't trust me".

Jurors were played a secret recording from June last year, in which the officer told him: "The thing is, brother, with my plan you know I'm not gonna be around for long, you know... I'm probably going to be around until the beginning of July."

Chowdhury can be heard saying: "If you're one man and there's a million kuffar (unbelievers), you are free to fight them, if your intentions are clear, you're fighting for the pleasure of Allah.

"And if you die that's completely fine, it's even more virtuous, you know.

"The weapons are a must, these firearms, it's a 100%... just make sure you have clips, Akhi ('brother'), you have enough clips, know what I'm saying."

He later added: "It must be an ambush... you don't wait until they notice something, you know, Allah says 'lie in wait for them and every place we'll ambush'.

"So we should be the one doing it first, they shouldn't know what's hit them, yeah, does that make sense?"

The officer claimed that in Whatsapp messages shortly afterwards, he asked Chowdhury: "How did you feel before you did what you did?"

Chowdhury replied: "Bro, I felt so much peace but I had focused rage at the taghut (false idols) the only thing reassuring me was guaranteed paradise.

"Another thing I did was cut off that which would prevent you from turning back. I spent all my money and paid off debts."

Two unarmed officers suffered cuts to their hands when they fought to disarm Chowdhury near Buckingham Palace in August 2017.

He claimed at trial that he wanted to be killed by police and had no intention of hurting anyone but himself.

He denies engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, collecting information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, and disseminating terrorist publications.

His sister, Sneha Chowdhury, 25, denies two charges of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism.

The trial continues.