Fanatics "poisoned" London bomber's mind: widow
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-23 15:44

The widow of one of the suicide bombers who killed 52 people in attacks on London's transport system on July 7 said on Friday radical British mosques had "poisoned" her peace-loving husband's mind.

Samantha Lewthwaite, the wife of Jamaican-born Germaine Lindsay who killed 27 people on an underground train near King's Cross station, said he had become twisted by fanatics he had met toward the end of last year.

"The killing of innocent British civilians by Jamal (Lindsay) was something I could never comprehend," she said in an interview with the Sun newspaper.

"How these people could have turned him and poisoned his mind is dreadful. He became a man I didn't recognize."

Lindsay, 19, and three other British Muslims -- Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Mohammed Sidique Khan -- detonated homemade bombs hidden in rucksacks on three underground trains and a bus during the morning rush hour.

"He was so angry when he saw Muslim civilians being killed on the streets of Iraq, Bosnia, Palestine and Israel -- and always said it was the innocent who suffered," said Lewthwaite, a Muslim convert like Lindsay.

"Then he is responsible for doing the same thing -- but to his fellow British people," she added, saying she "totally abhorred" his actions.

Lindsay's behavior had become increasingly erratic in the weeks running up to the attacks, and Lewthwaite, who was eight months pregnant when Lindsay carried out the bombing, believed he was having an affair.

She told the paper she had ordered him out of their house just hours before the attacks. But she said she believed he had returned to say goodbye to his son Abdullah, now 17-months-old.

"I feel sure he couldn't have gone through with it without seeing him one last time," she said. "He kissed our child goodbye and then crept off to blow up King's Cross."

Lewthwaite, who gave birth to the couple's second child just over two weeks ago, said she wept when anti-terrorist police showed pictures of Lindsay on surveillance film in the run-up to the bombings.

She was taken to a safe house by police for her own safety but said she hoped that society would not reject her for what her husband had done.