An Uber driver with a samurai sword who became embroiled in a violent struggle with police outside Buckingham Palace has been found not guilty of preparing acts of terrorism.
Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, 27, was involved in an incident with three officers on 25 August last year, but told a retrial at the Old Bailey he had no intention of hurting them.
He said he instead wanted to commit "suicide by cop" because of British government policy against Muslims and jurors were unanimous in acquitting him after 11 hours and 36 minutes spent considering the verdict.
Mr Chowdhury, of Luton, Bedfordshire, bit his lip, raised his eyebrows and saluted the jurors, as a woman in the public gallery shouted out: "It should never have happened."
The court had heard how two officers received cuts to their hands during the struggle and needed hospital treatment, with one punching Mr Chowdhury more than 20 times in an attempt to get him to release the blade.
Shortly before 8.30pm, his Toyota Prius car was seen swerving through a set of traffic bollards at the bottom end of the Mall, near the Palace, and into the path of the police van.
Two of the officers got out to check on the driver, believing he might be drunk, and it was said that he then reached towards the glove box to get something and started shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great).
Mr Chowdhury said that he only planned to "confront" police, explaining that he had become depressed and suicidal after viewing images of Saudi air attacks in Yemen because some of the weapons were British.
The court heard that following his arrest, he told police: "I feel like the root cause of all the problems is the Queen and I think that there's a war going on and there's a lot of innocent people dying.
"I just felt like I had to do something and the only thing I could think of was to confront the police because they're the ones enforcing the Queen's laws and stuff. That's the logic."
The court heard that three hours before the incident, Mr Chowdhury left a note marked "read this" on top of his sister's laptop at the family home in Luton
It said: "By the time you read this note I will be in paradise with Allah. Tell everyone that I love them and that they should struggle against the enemies of Allah with their lives and property.
"The Queen and her soldiers will all be in the hellfire. They go to war with Muslims around the world and kill them without mercy. They are the enemies that Allah tells us to fight."
The court heard how Mr Chowdhury had started working for Uber after dropping out of a university psychology degree and had only become a practising Muslim a month before the incident.
While on remand in prison, awaiting his trial, Mr Chowdhury was said to have sketched out a picture of an Islamic fighter shooting a police officer outside Downing Street, which he pinned to his cell wall.
The jury was told that the prison cell was inspected on 26 September this year, when prison officers found the sketch alongside another on the wall showed a plane crashing into the Twin Towers.
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Mr Chowdhury was charged with a single count of preparing an act of terrorism over the Buckingham Palace incident.
He was not prosecuted for other alleged behaviour.
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