UK PM Johnson pressured on jail terms after London Bridge attack

LONDON (Reuters) - The London Bridge attack pushed law and order towards the top of the British political agenda yesterday, with days to go before a snap election, after police said the assailant had previously been convicted of terrorism offences but freed early from prison.

Usman Khan, wearing a fake suicide vest and wielding knives, went on the rampage at a conference on criminal rehabilitation beside London Bridge on Friday, killing two people. The 28-year old Briton was wrestled to the ground by bystanders then shot dead by police.

Police said yesterday that Khan had been convicted in 2012 for his part in an al Qaeda-inspired plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange. He was released in December 2018 subject to conditions.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, criticised the government’s sentencing policies.

“There’s got to be a very full investigation,” said Corbyn who is seeking to depose Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the election on Dec. 12 but trails in opinion polls.

“I think there is also a question about what the probation service were doing ... and whether the parole board should have been involved in deciding whether or not he should have been allowed to be released from prison in the first place,” he said.

Earlier, Johnson said the attack was a terrorist act and vowed to end a practice whereby serious offenders can be automatically let out of prison early.

“I have long said that this system simply isn’t working,” he said after visiting the scene of the attack yesterday.

Those convicted of a serious terrorism offence should face a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years, he said later.

Islamic State said the attack was carried out by one of its fighters and was in response to its calls to target countries that had been part of a coalition fighting the jihadist group, according to its Amaq news agency. The group did not provide any evidence for its assertion.

A man and a woman were killed in the attack, with local media naming one of the victims as Jack Merritt, a course coordinator for Learning Together, a prisoners’ rehabilitation programme which held the conference at Fishmongers’ Hall.

Three people remain in hospital with two victims in a stable condition while a third person is suffering from less serious injuries, according to the National Health Service.