A former Uber driver, cleared of launching a sword attack on police outside Buckingham Palace, has been found guilty of plotting a terror attack just months after his release.

Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, 28, from Luton, had planned to target iconic tourist sites including Madame Tussauds, Piccadilly Circus and London's Pride parade, using a vehicle, knife and gun.

He was particularly fixated on the Royal Family and talked about launching an attack during the two minutes' silence on Remembrance Day.

In December 2018, Chowdhury was unanimously cleared by an Old Bailey jury of a terrorist sword attack near the gates of Buckingham Palace the year before.

Image: Madame Tussauds was considered a possible target

That jury believed his claims that he had not intended to harm anyone and that he simply wanted to commit suicide, to be shot dead by armed police.


He had driven first to Windsor Castle and then to Buckingham Palace in search of soldiers to kill, according to the prosecution at his original trial.

A police officer was left with a gash across his hand after he tried to wrestle the sword from Chowdhury in a violent struggle.

While on remand, Chowdury drew a sketch in his prison cell of an Islamist terrorist shouting "Allahu Akbar" [God is great] as he opened fire on a police officer at the door to 10 Downing Street.

However, Chowdhury told the jury he was feeling guilty for Britain's support of the civil war in Yemen and wanted the police to shoot him dead.

Image: Chowdhury talked about launching an attack during the two minutes' silence on Remembrance Day. File pic

He told how his mother was bipolar and he would get depressed.

But his online presence showed he had started supporting Islamic State and began posting extremist comments, claiming the Queen would burn in hell.

Scotland Yard was so concerned by his acquittal that, within a month, they had a four-man undercover team assembled and deployed to check if he was planning another attack.

Those undercover officers managed to win his trust and convince him they were sympathetic to his views, as he began boasting that he had deceived the jury in his first trial by trimming his beard and changing his appearance.

Image: A police officer walks away with the sword recovered by police outside Buckingham Palace. Pic: Met Police

He laughed as he spoke about prison deradicalisation schemes and talked of launching an attack with another inmate as soon as that other prisoner was released.

"It's really funny, it never works. They've got the results but it never works," he said.

Chowdhury had been put on a wing at Belmarsh high security prison with some of the most dangerous terrorist prisoners, including Ahmed Hassan, who launch a failed bomb attack on a tube train at Parson's Green in 2017.

Within days of his release from prison, Chowdhury was again posting extreme comments online and even made a video of himself with a Glock air pistol.

He was released on 18 December 2018 and by 29 December he had set up an Instagram page and posted a court sketch of himself and of the police officer who had disarmed him outside Buckingham Palace.

On 8 January he posted an article on the "excellence of jihad" and on 11 January he posted a picture of the front cover of the IS magazine Dabiq.

Five days later, he made inquiries about enrolling on a firearms training course in Dorset.

Image: The sword Chowdhury used. Pic: Met Police

Scotland Yard decided to deploy a team of undercover officers to befriend and track Chowdhury's movements, with the first officer, who used the name "Zulf", deployed on 30 January.

The undercover officers enticed Chowdhury into disclosing his plans for a second attack, initially by talking loudly about jihad in the chicken shop where he worked.

When the officers arranged to meet at a local mosque on 24 February, Chowdhury told them about his prosecution for the attempted attack at Buckingham Palace.

He told them he had "intended to kill a soldier in the name of jihad" but he had been overpowered by police officers.

Referring to his court case, he told the officers "it was a great feeling to go up against the Queen and win, a great feeling to hear the judge reading excerpts from the Koran that he himself had highlighted."

Describing his attack on Buckingham Palace, Chowdhury said he was punched unconsciousness and woke up in the back of the police van but added: "If Allah wants to take me down this path again then...".

In a conversation on 31 March last year, recorded by listening devices in a flat used by the undercover officers, Chowdhury told them he was ready to "go again".

He told the officers: "I haven't died yet, you know what I'm saying? I haven't got shahada [martyrdom] so it's even harder now subhanallah [praise god] because now I know what my family's been through.

"I should be in prison for 30 plus years," he said.

"I told them why I did it. I told them that they are filth, even in their own courts and yet after all that, every single person on the jury, Allah made them say not guilty, yeah, this is the imaan [faith], right."

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He added: "Life is short brothers, what's scary is not knowing where you're going to end up. Shahada guarantees you paradise, allahu akbar [God is great]."

He discussed targets with the undercover officers, particularly Remembrance Day and Pride, and using a gun and a vehicle, but in the end Chowdhury insisted he was going to act alone.

Commander Richard Smith, the head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terror Command, said: "Mohiussunnath Chowdhury was an extremely dangerous individual.

"He was absolutely committed to causing harm to as many people as he could. I think the evidence we collected through our covert officers and which we put before the court clearly demonstrated his murderous intent."

By 18 June, Chowdhury was heard rehearsing a knife attack with his sister, Sneha, telling her which parts of the body to attack.

Two days later, he told her: "I'm giving my notice in today. I'm doing another attack bruv".

His sister said: "Bro you're just having a down day today init. That's what it is".

But Chowdhury insisted: "No I'm serious, it's about time now".

Chowdhury and his sister were arrested on 3 July last year, three days before the annual Pride march through London to Trafalgar Square.

In his bedroom at the family home, police found a kitchen knife under the mattress, wooden training swords and slash marks on a canvas wardrobe, where he had practised stabbing techniques.

Sneha Chowdhury was convicted of one count of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism and cleared of another count of the same charge.