Michael Adebolajo has been given a whole-life jail term at the Old Bailey for the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.
Michael Adebowale has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 45 years for the same offence.
Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, mowed the young soldier down in a car before hacking him to death in front of horrified onlookers near Woolwich barracks in south-east London on May 22 last year.
During their Old Bailey trial last year, Adebowale, from Greenwich, south-east London, offered no evidence in his defence, but Adebolajo, from Romford, east London, gave a rambling testimony during which he told the jury he loved al Qaida.
He claimed they were ‘soldiers of Allah’ and had carried out the sickening killing as revenge for abuse of Muslims abroad.
They chose Fusilier Rigby, 25, as their victim because he was wearing a Help for Heroes hooded top that day, and they assumed he was a soldier.
After being found guilty in December the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, postponed sentencing the pair until a hearing on whether whole life jail terms could still be used by UK judges.
Earlier this month the Court of Appeal upheld judges’ right to jail the most serious offenders for the rest of their lives.
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