100 terror suspects are let back on our streets
NEARLY 100 terror suspects were allowed back into the community last year despite being under investigation, it has emerged.
Home Office figures show 259 people were held for terror offences in the 12 months to September, down 20 per cent from the previous year.
Of that total, 96 suspects walked free on bail or were “released under investigation”, meaning they had no restrictions as inquiries continued.
Caroline Goodwin QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “This is a deeply worrying and disturbing trend. Many suspected terrorismrelated crimes being reported would fall into serious crime categories.
“Violent offenders ought to be subject to judicial monitoring to prevent reoffending. The public are being let down. Protection means protection.
“The criminal justice system should not promote situations where suspects are released without follow-up. Matters should be properly investigated, in a timely manner and using bail. Protecting the public from harm is a basic, core duty any government has to the public and quite rightly the public expect that duty to be fulfilled.
Bombing
“There is an argument to say Released Under Investigation only serves to maintain harm or in many cases allow for greater and more frequent acts of harm.”
The Home Office figures show 53 terrorists were freed in the year to September, including an extremist given life and another given an indeterminate term for public protection.
And 15 of the 53 were given sentences of less than four years.
Overall, 245 people convicted of terror crimes were released from jail between June 2012 and June 2019.
And 108 terror suspects held on remand in the period were released without charge or acquitted in court.
Since Khalid Masood’s Westminster atrocity in March 2017, 25 plots have been thwarted. And police, security services and probation teams are probing the files of over 200 extremists, with some reportedly facing bans
from towns and cities.About 70 cases relate to convicted terrorists freed on licence. Some 150 include inmates nearing release and suspects held under terror laws but later convicted of lesser offences and now free.
The data comes after convicted terrorist Usman Khan killed two at London Bridge last Friday. Police shot the knifeman dead after members of the public, including a man armed with a narwhal tusk, tackled him.
Khan, 28 and from Staffordshire, was in an al-Qaeda-inspired group linked to hate preacher Anjem Choudary.
He got 16 years in 2012 over plots including a bombing of the London Stock Exchange – but was freed on licence last December.
Chris Phillips, former head of counter-terror, defended the growing numbers released on bail or RUI, saying some would later be cleared. But he attacked schemes letting convicted terrorists out before serving their full term, saying: “What is the point if you are going to sentence someone to 10 years and you know they are out in five? It is a disgrace.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I think you must always try to rehabilitate people. But there are some people, and I think probably [Usman Khan] is one of them, who just are not capable of being changed and it was wrong to have early release.”