Who is the White Widow? Where Samantha Lewthwaite is now after 10 years on wanted list – World News

Samantha Lewthwaite, also known as The White Widow, was once married to the 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay, and has been on the run from an arrest warrant in Kenya since 2012, and an Interpol red notice since 2013

Samantha Lewthwaite is the widow of July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay

British-born jihadist Samantha Lewthwaite, also known as the White Widow, is one of the world’s most-wanted women, and has been hunted by Interpol for nearly nine years.

Lewthwaite is the widow of one of the four suicide bombers in the 7/7 London Underground attack, Germaine Lindsay, and has been sought by Interpol since 2013.

The mum-of-three, who grew up in Aylesbury in England, has also been linked to terror attacks in the Middle East and Africa – but has never been caught.

It is believed she joined the Somali militant Islamist group al-Shabaab, the organisation behind an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, after her husband died. The attack saw 66 people murdered when a gunman stormed the shopping area, injuring 200 others.

According to a Netflix documentary called World’s Most Wanted, the White Widow took up a “symbolic role” in the group.

She has been wanted in Kenya since 2012, and Interpol issued a Red Notice warrant for her arrest in September 2013, requesting her arrest with a view to being extradited.

Who is Samantha Lewthwaite?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Lewthwaite grew up in an Irish Catholic military family in Aylesbury.

She converted to Islam at the age of 17, and was radicalised after she met her husband, extremist Germaine, online while she was studying religion and politics in London.

They married in 2002, and had two children together. Lewthwaite was pregnant with their second child when Lindsay walked onto an underground train near King’s Cross station on July 7, 2005.

At the time, Lewthwaite strongly condemned the attack, and said in a statement she could have “never predicted or imagined that [Lindsay] was involved in such horrific activities”.

However, her statement was soon exposed as a complete lie. Soon after her husband’s death she adopted a fake identity and travelled to Africa.

She went into hiding with her children, and it is believed she then joined the al-Shabaab terror group.

After that she is rumoured to have married a Muslim man in Morocco, and gave birth to her third child in 2009.

Where is the White Widow now?

Lewthwaite has been on the run for 10 years.

She fled the UK for South Africa in 2009, before later crossing into Tanzania and then Kenya in 2011. It is believed she travelled using a fake passport under the name Natalie Webb.

In 2013 officials said she had fled to Somalia and that officers were hunting a woman who used several identities. They traced her to an al-Shabaab stronghold.

Now aged 38, Samantha Lewthwaite’s current exact location is unknown.

Most recently, she is believed to have split with her fourth husband after seven years, and fled to Yemen.

Security sources believe she is caught up in the deadly chaos of Yemen’s long-running civil war.

Meanwhile, The Sun reported there were rumours Lewthwaite was killed by a Russian sniper in 2014.

These claims were not proven, and authorities continue to search for her.

What is the White Widow accused of?

Lewthwaite is “wanted by Kenya on charges of being in possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony dating back to December 2011”.

Authorities also noted that they “cannot rule out that Lewthwaite played a role” in numerous attacks by al-Shabaab.

These include a grenade attack on a bar in Mombasa in 2012, where three people were killed and 25 injured.

Interpol issued a Red Notice arrest warrant the following year when she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall massacre.