London terrorist ‘radicalised in jail’
THE mother of Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman has described him as a “nice, polite boy”, who was radicalised while in a high-security jail and by viewing extremist material online.
Haleema Faraz Khan told Sky News that her son, who had wanted to study biomedical science, had seemed “normal” when she visited him on Thursday.
She also spoke to him hours before he staged the attack.
Fanatic Amman was shot dead by police after grabbing a knife from a shop and attacking two bystanders in Streatham High Road, south London, on Sunday. A third person was injured by flying glass during the gunfire.
The 20-year-old, who was jailed for possessing and distributing terrorist documents in December 2018, had recently been freed from prison and had been staying at a bail hostel in nearby Leigham Court Road for the past two weeks.
His mother told the broadcaster: “He became more religious inside prison, that’s where I think he became radicalised.
“He was watching and listening to things online which brainwashed him.”
The atrocity follows the attack at Fishmongers’ Hall in the City of London in November, when another convicted terrorist, Usman Khan, murdered two people despite being on probation.
Cambridge graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were stabbed to death at the rehabilitation conference.
Amman’s mother said she believed he had been radicalised while in high-security jail Belmarsh, and had also developed extreme views after looking at Islamist material online.
He had been released from prison on January 23, according to London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Recalling the terror attack last month by two inmates wearing fake suicide belts at maximum security jail HMP Whitemoor, he described prisons as “warehouses where people are radicalised more” and learn from a “university of crime rather than being rehabilitated and punished”.
About 245 convicted terrorists were freed from jail between 2012 and 2019.
Mr Khan said more than 70 people who have been convicted of a terrorist offence and served time in prison have been released in the capital.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Government will crack down on the early release of terrorist prisoners.
“We are bringing forward legislation to stop the system of automatic early release. The difficulty is how to apply retrospectively to the cohort of people who currently qualify,” he said.
“It is time to take action to ensure, irrespective of the law we are bringing in, people in the current stream don’t qualify automatically for early release.”
Scotland Yard said armed officers were following Amman on foot as part of a “proactive counter-terrorism surveillance operation” in Streatham High Road.