A British terror suspect linked to the notorious White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite has been returned to the UK from Kenya after serving a lengthy jail term in the African nation for possessing bomb-making materials and forgery.
Jermaine Grant was flown back to Britain on Thursday accompanied by Kenyan officials and immediately arrested after touching down at Heathrow Airport.
A Kenyan court last year ordered Grant to be deported once his prison sentence had elapsed following a case made by prosecutors for him to be kicked out.
Investigators believe the 41-year-old has links to Samantha Lewthwaite, the wife of 7/7 terrorist bomber Germaine Lindsay, and the terror group Al-Shabaab.
Grant was apprehended by Kenyan authorities in 2011 after they found bomb-making materials in his flat in Mombasa.
Jermaine Grant (centre, in a plaid shirt) is led away to begin his sentence on bomb-making charges in 2019
Grant is believed to have shared a Mombasa flat with the so-called White Widow, Samantha Lewthwaite
Lewthwaite is the widow of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay, who killed himself and 25 other detonating a bomb on an Underground train in London (pictured: walking wounded following the attack)
Samantha Lewthwaite pictured with her husband, 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay
Security sources warn Samantha Lewthwaite may be hiding alongside jihadist-sympathisers in Yemen following her split from her partner of seven years
He was then sentenced to four years in prison in 2019, to be served alongside a separate nine-year sentence for forgery.
Prosecutors then lodged a case with Kenya’s High Court to have him deported to Britain once he had served his sentence.
A government spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We can confirm that an individual was deported to the UK following the completion of a criminal sentence in Kenya.
‘Our priority remains to ensure the safety and security of the UK.
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‘We will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect the UK and have one of the most robust counter-terrorism frameworks in the world to ensure this.’
A Met Police spokesperson added: ‘We can confirm that on Thursday, 8 August, officers from the Met Police arrested a 41-year-old man who was wanted on recall to prison in relation to breaching licence conditions linked to a previous conviction.
‘He was arrested at Heathrow Airport as he arrived back into the UK on a flight from Kenya. The man’s licence conditions were revoked in August 2005 following the initial breach.
‘Upon his return to the UK on 8 August, the man was also arrested for being unlawfully at large and on suspicion of being a member of the proscribed organisation Al-Shabaab.
‘He was taken into police custody, before being bailed in relation to the terrorism and being unlawfully at large matters, both of which continue to be investigated by officers from the Counter Terrorism Command.
‘He was subsequently returned to prison in relation to the recall.’
The Telegraph reports he arrived into a British airport on a Kenyan Airways flight.
Grant, a Muslim convert, was arrested by Kenyan police in a flat in Mombasa in December 2011. They believed he had been planning a bombing campaign against hotels popular with foreign tourists.
He had previously been apprehended in 2008 over a plot to attack a police base on a bus trying to enter Somalia while dressed in a burka.
Investigators found chemicals, switches and a manual on explosives in the apartment, which he is believed to have shared with Lewthwaite, known as the White Widow. He was also carrying a forged Canadian passport.
When police swooped on Grant’s flat Lewthwaite had fled, escaping just minutes earlier after Grant allegedly warned her with a text message.
It read: ‘The lions are inside. One of them is very watchful, like a bird watches a stone.’
He is thought to have become radicalised as a teenager in the same British prison where ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid first turned to Islam.
Investigators also believe he had links with the east African militant group Al-Shabaab, of which Lewthwaite – originally from County Down in Northern Ireland – is also believed to be a member.
Lewthwaite remains at large as one of the world’s most wanted people and has not been seen since – though security sources believe she fled Somalia after leaving her fourth husband two years ago.
She is suspected of orchestrating a string of terror attacks in Africa that have killed more than 400 people including the deadly 2013 shopping centre attack at the Westgate in Nairobi that killed more than 60 civilians and several soldiers.
Lewthwaite remains on Interpol’s red notice list – the de facto ‘most wanted’ list of international terrorists and criminals.
‘White Widow’ Sam Lewthwaite, the world’s most wanted woman
Samantha Lewthwaite, originally of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was the wife of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay and is thought to be behind scores of suicide attacks across Africa and the Middle East.
Interpol issued a Red Notice warrant for her arrest after she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others.
Security services believe her other atrocities include the slaughter of 148 people by gunmen at a university in 2015.
Samantha Lewthwaite, originally of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was the wife of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay and is thought to be behind scores of suicide attacks across Africa and the Middle East
Interpol issued a Red Notice warrant for her arrest after she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others
In Yemen, she is understood to have recruited female suicide bombers with bribes of £3,000. She is also thought to have sent male suicide bombers as young as 15, high on heroin, to their deaths.
London University graduate Lewthwaite reportedly altered her appearance through plastic surgery and piled on weight in a bid to remain unrecognised.
She has pledged to raise all of her four children, who have three different fathers, as jihadists.
As a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist cleric Trevor Forrest, or Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, through whom she met Lindsay, who killed himself and 26 others in 2005.
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