Kenyan military personnel outside the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi. Still from ITN video
Interpol have issued a “red notice” for the arrest of UK national Samantha Lewthwaite at the request of Kenyan authorities.
Lewthwaite, 29, is the widow of Germaine Lindsay, one of the four bombers involved in the 7 July terror attacks in London in 2005, in which 52 people were killed and hundreds more injured. She is also believed to use the alias ‘Natalie Webb’, is wanted by Kenya on charges of being in possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony dating back to December 2011.
Intelligence sources believe Lewthwaite to have been behind a number of terror attacks across Africa in recent years, but she is rarely, if ever, involved in the implementation of the attacks and as such has been difficult to find direct evidence implicating her. The current national arrest warrant out for her in Kenya is for fraudulently obtaining a South African passport.
As unconfirmed reports came in about a British woman involved in the Nairobi attack earlier this week, there was again much speculation about the involvement of Lewthwaite, and this arrest warrant will add to that speculation although the red notice is over offences in 2011.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald K Noble said:
“By requesting an INTERPOL Red Notice, Kenya has activated a global ‘tripwire’ for this fugitive,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.”