A jury on Thursday convicted two men who called themselves "soldiers of Allah" of killing a British soldier who was run down with a car, stabbed to death on a London street, SIA reports citing Fox News.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for just 90 minutes before finding Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale guilty of murdering Fusilier Lee Rigby. They were acquitted of attempting to murder a police officer.
Both men had pleaded not guilty to murder, though neither denied taking part in the May 22 attack.
Neither defendant reacted as the jury foreman announced the verdicts. Adebolajo smiled and kissed a copy of the Quran as he was led down to the cells.
The judge praised the dignity of Rigby's family "throughout what must have been the most harrowing of evidence." He thanked jurors, who sat through graphic footage of the murder, for their service.
The judge said he would sentence the defendants next year, after a January Court of Appeal ruling on the use of life sentences without parole.
Members of Rigby's family stood in tears outside London's Central Criminal Court as a police officer read out a statement on their behalf.
The 25-year-old Rigby, an Afghan war veteran, was returning on foot to his barracks in south London when he was hit by a car and then stabbed.
"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we've killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers," Adebolajo told the camera, according to Reuters.
Adebolajo later told the police, in an interview played in court, that Rigby had been targeted because "he was the soldier that was spotted first."
Adebowale chose to present no evidence in his defense during the three-week trial at London's Central Criminal Court. His lawyer, Abbas Lakha, told the jury that his client agreed with Adebolajo's description of the attack as a "military operation" and the two men as soldiers.
After the attack Adebolajo, 29, and 22-year-old Adebowale waited at the scene, charged a police car as it arrived a few minutes later, and were shot and wounded by officers.
Both men denied trying to kill a police officer. Lakha said Adebowale had brandished a 90-year-old unloaded pistol to ensure police would shoot them and they "would achieve martyrdom."
Armed officers shot Adebojalo in the leg and Adebowale in the hand, then gave the men first aid.
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