This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A woman who knew about her friend’s plot to launch a knife attack in Westminster has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

Khawla Barghouthi, 21, also faces deportation to Tunisia after she admitted failing to disclose Rizlaine Boular’s Islamic State-inspired plan to authorities.

Boular, 22, had discussed and practised her planned attack at Barghouthi’s home in Willesden, north-west London, shortly before she was arrested on 27 April last year.

In a secretly recorded conversation, the women laughed as Boular said she feared she might “flop so badly” and cut her arm by accident.

When armed police arrested them, Boular shouted “fuck you” and was shot by an officer, who thought she had something in her hand.

In mitigation, Michael Mansfield QC said Barghouthi came to Britain at the age of 11 from Tunisia knowing no English, but excelled at school and aspired to be a care worker.

When she met Boular, who was described as “disturbed”, Barghouthi lent her a “hand or a shoulder”, not knowing how serious she was, he argued.

Of her conversation with Boular on the day of the planned attack, Barghouthi, an Open University student, said: “I did not believe the person I was with was actually going to go through with anything.

“When I read the transcript, I was horrified how it sounds. What I can say? At the time it was extravagant talk and very stupid fooling around.”

But passing sentence at the Old Bailey in London, the judge, Mark Dennis QC, said the defendant knew Boular was serious and did nothing to alert authorities or put her off.

“[She] failed to disclose information about an imminent attack in which a knife would be used to endanger the life of multiple individuals,” he said.

“There was a growing awareness over a number of days of the nature of the attack by Rizlaine Boular.”

“There is no reason, in my view, to doubt that Rizlaine Boular intended to carry out her violent action, even at the cost of her own life.”

The recorded conversation showed Barghouthi believed her friend intended to go ahead with the violence but did nothing to put her off, the judge said.

He also noted Barghouthi’s interest in extremist material, although it was a “comparatively small amount”.

Last Friday, Boular was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years, having admitted preparing acts of terrorism.

The court heard Boular’s younger sister, Safaa, had planned to attack the British Museum in London after her Isis-linked fiance was killed in Syria.

The sisters discussed it in coded chat about an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party.

Safaa Boular will be sentenced at a later date after she was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism in the UK and Syria.