‘He kissed our child goodbye and crept off to blow up King’s Cross’
LONDON, England (CNN) — The widow of one of the suicide bombers who killed 52 people in the July 7 London bombings says radical British mosques had “poisoned” her peace-loving husband’s mind.
Samantha Lewthwaite, the wife of Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay who killed 27 people on an Underground train near King’s Cross station, said he was “innocent and naive” and had been brainwashed by fanatics.
Lewthwaite, 21, told The Sun newspaper how Lindsay — who called himself Jamal after converting to Islam — tenderly kissed their 15-month old son Abdullah farewell before leaving on his lethal mission.
“He kissed our child goodbye and then crept off to blow up King’s Cross. In the morning I found he’d left the keys on a table downstairs. He obviously had no more use for them.”
She said she “totally abhorred” her husband’s deadly actions.
“The killing of innocent British civilians by Jamal (Lindsay) was something I could never comprehend,” she said.
“How these people could have turned him and poisoned his mind is dreadful. He became a man I didn’t recognize.
“He was an innocent, naive and simple man. I suppose he must have been an ideal candidate.”
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.
The couple, both converts to Islam, met over the Internet and married in 2002 when, she said, he had been a “a peaceful man who loved people.”
He had wanted to become a human rights lawyer, she said.
But Lindsay changed after they moved from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire to Aylesbury, northwest of London, and took to disappearing for days on end, visiting mosques around the country.
“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.
“Then he is responsible for doing the same thing — but to his fellow British people.”
She had assumed he was at a mosque that fateful Thursday, but said when police interviewed her and showed her CCTV footage of her husband, her “world collapsed.”
Lewthwaite gave birth to their daughter, Ruqayyah, this month. One day, she said, she would have to tell their children what he had done: “Jamal is accountable for his actions one hundred percent and I condemn with all my heart what he has done.
“I will try to remember for my children’s sake the Jamal I loved and raise them knowing their father was a man who truly loved them.
“But the day will come when I’ll have to tell them what he did.”
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 because of his frequent absences.