Two suspected terrorists linked to Boko Haram are charged with acid attack on British teens

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Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee were injured in horrific Zanzibar chemical attack
A stranger on a moped threw acid over the then 18-year-old Londoners
A ruling politician has claimed two suspected terrorists have been arrested
Abdulrahman Kinana said the men were linked to extremists Boko Haram

Published: 06:23 EST, 13 September 2015 | Updated: 23:59 EST, 13 September 2015

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Two suspected terrorists with links to Islamic extremists Boko Haram have appeared in court accused of throwing acid at two British teenage girls holidaying in Zanzibar.

With help from Scotland Yard and Interpol, two members of the Uamsho or 'Awakening', group were arrested and charged by local authorities.

North Londoners Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee, both 18 at the time, were left with severe burns after a stranger on a moped threw acid over the two of them in 2013.

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Kirstie Trup, pictured left, and Katie Gee, both 18, from Hampstead, north London, were walking to a restaurant in Zanzibar when two men on a moped threw acid at them

Ms Trup (pictured left), jumped in the sea to try and wash the chemical from her body. Pictured right is the injuries one of the girls sustained in the attack

In the weeks following, the pair - who were visiting the east African island to help underprivileged children - were praised for their humanitarian aims.

Abdulrahman Kinana, a prominent ruling Zanzibar politician, has now claimed two suspected terrorists have been arrested and charged.

In a blog post for U.S. political website The Hill, he wrote: 'Assisted by investigators from the British police at New Scotland Yard and Interpol, the Tanzanian authorities later arrested for the crime members of Uamsho or "Awakening".

Describing them as an 'Islamic terrorist group with known links to Boko Haram' which had previously targeted foreigners and Christians, he added the two men 'have now been charged in court'.

Acid attacks have become the hallmark of the group which wants Zanzibar’s independence from Tanzania and Sharia law to be imposed on the island.

Witnesses described seeing two men on a moped drive past several other Western tourists before throwing acid at the girls.

Friends suggested they could have been targeted because they are Jewish. The girls were working as volunteer teachers at a Christian nursery school and there were concerns they were attacked as part of escalating religious tensions.

Television images filmed after the attack showed one of them, obviously in pain, in the back of a car as they were taken to Zanzibar’s airport to be flown to the mainland for medical treatment.

Kirstie Trup, looked drained and scared as she arrived at hospital after the attack in Zanzibar

'Beyond imagination': The teenage girls were covered by sheets as they were escorted out of an ambulance and into Chelsea and Westminster hospital

Tanzania’s president Jakaya Kikwete visited them in the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam, a signal of the shock caused by the attacks and of Tanzania’s determination to guard its lucrative tourism industry.

Both had been told to be aware of appropriate dress codes during Ramadan and were careful to avoid wearing anything which would identify them as Jewish.

In the days following the shocking attack, Miss Gee’s father Jeremy said her family were devastated after seeing photographs of her injuries.

‘The photographs I have seen are absolutely horrendous,’ he said. ‘The level of the burns are beyond imagination.’

Miss Trup’s father Marc, 51, a multi-millionaire dental surgeon and property developer, said a passer-by had come to the girls’ assistance after the attack and had called him.

'He tried to put me on to them... you couldn’t get anything out of them. I couldn’t speak to them. Terrible, absolutely shocking,' he said. 'Kirstie was inconsolable.'

The acid splashed on to the girls’ faces, chests, legs and backs and they also suffered burnt hands as they tried desperately to wipe the corrosive liquid away.