34 Facts About Samantha Lewthwaite

Samantha Louise Lewthwaite, known as Sherafiyah Lewthwaite or the White Widow, is a British terrorist who is one of the Western world's most wanted terrorism suspects.

Samantha Lewthwaite is a fugitive from justice in Kenya, where she is wanted on charges of possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony and is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice requesting her arrest with a view to extradition.

Samantha Lewthwaite is alleged to be a member of the Somalia-based radical Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab.

Samantha Lewthwaite is accused of orchestrating grenade attacks at non-Muslim places of worship, and is believed to have been behind an attack on those watching football in a bar in Mombasa during Euro 2012.

Samantha Lewthwaite was dubbed the "White Widow" by the news media, a play on words referencing her race and the death of her first husband and the practice of referring to Chechen female suicide bombers as "black widows".

Samantha Lewthwaite was born to parents Andrew and Elizabeth Christine Samantha Lewthwaite in Banbridge, County Down in 1983.

Samantha Lewthwaite attended Elmhurst middle school and The Grange secondary school in Aylesbury.

Samantha Lewthwaite studied for a politics and religion degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, but dropped out.

Samantha Lewthwaite's parents separated in 1994, and friends later reported that she was badly affected by the break-up and sought solace from Muslim neighbours who she believed had a stronger family network.

Samantha Lewthwaite adopted the name Sherafiyah at the time of her conversion.

Samantha Lewthwaite met Germaine Lindsay on the Internet and arranged to meet him at a Stop the War march in Hyde Park, London; they married in Aylesbury on 30 October 2002, using the Islamic names Asmantara and Jamal.

Samantha Lewthwaite was eight months pregnant with their second child, a daughter, at the time of his death, and their first child, a son, was 14 months old.

Samantha Lewthwaite reported her husband missing six days after the bombing by telephoning a helpline set up for families of the victims.

Samantha Lewthwaite denied prior knowledge of the attacks and said:.

Samantha Lewthwaite was placed in protective custody in a police 'safe house' after an attempt to set fire to her home in the immediate aftermath of the bombings.

At the inquest into the bombings, it was disclosed that Samantha Lewthwaite had associated with Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the London bombers, before the attacks.

The Daily Telegraph reported in September 2013 that Samantha Lewthwaite was believed to have met and married Habib Saleh Ghani, who was born in Hounslow, London in 1985.

Samantha Lewthwaite gave birth to a third child in 2009, but the father was not named on the birth certificate.

Samantha Lewthwaite is reported to have moved to the north of England, then later to have disappeared with her children, and was believed to be in hiding in Tanzania or Somalia.

In May 2014, the Daily Mirror reported that Samantha Lewthwaite had married Hassan Maalim Ibrahim, a senior commander with the Al-Shabaab militant group.

Samantha Lewthwaite is among several Britons that our intelligence service is aware of in relation to terrorists' plans to attack us.

Samantha Lewthwaite has a lot of friends up north but she does not have much to do with us.

Samantha Lewthwaite is a very big sympathiser with those people.

Samantha Lewthwaite was not going to carry out an attack, but she helped to fundraise, helped in the acquisition of weapons, hiding people, transporting people, that kind of thing.

Samantha Lewthwaite was placed under surveillance by Kenyan police after moving into an apartment in Mombasa belonging to the former wife of terrorist financier Musa Hussein Abdi.

Pandor said that they had determined that Samantha Lewthwaite first entered South Africa in July 2008 and "travelled in and out of the country on several occasions".

Credit records showed that Samantha Lewthwaite ran up a number of unpaid debts from bank loans, credit cards and clothing store charge accounts in South Africa, including R28,000 owed to First Rand Bank and R30,000 to Standard Bank.

Samantha Lewthwaite gave birth to her fourth child, a daughter, at a private birthing centre in Johannesburg in July 2010.

Ghani was using a forged Mozambique passport in the name of Marco Costa and told the landlord that Samantha Lewthwaite was his wife.

Samantha Lewthwaite went to the mosque a lot and would not let her children attend school.

Kenyan police said a woman matching Samantha Lewthwaite's description was seen near the bar shortly before the attack in which three people were killed and 25 injured.

Samantha Lewthwaite's name was linked with the September 2013 attack claimed by Al-Shabaab on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, which left 71 dead and approximately 200 injured.

Police chief David Kimaiyo confirmed that Samantha Lewthwaite was not among those involved in the incident.

In June 2014, the BBC reported that well-placed security sources indicated that they had reliable information that Samantha Lewthwaite was in Kenya, and that they had launched a large operation to find her.