Let ‘naive’ jihadis return to UK – terror watchdog
BRITAIN’S terror watchdog was accused of a ‘reckless disregard’ for society last night after calling for ‘naive’ teenage jihadis to be spared prosecution.
Max Hill, the independent reviewer of anti-terror laws, said militants returning from the Islamic State war zone should instead be given space to reintegrate into our communities.
The top lawyer warned against ‘losing a generation’ of young men and women ‘brainwashed’ by online propaganda.
He said those who return in a ‘state of utter disillusionment’ could be ‘diverted’ from the criminal justice system.
It is a stark contrast with his predecessor David Anderson who warned returning jihadis were the greatest risk to the nation for years.
Experts pointed out that battle-hardened fighters pose an ‘unimaginably serious threat’. One highlighted the ‘clear moral duty’ to make those who joined IS face the full force of the law.
Mr Hill, who took the role in February, said travelling to Syria should not always mean prosecution. He added: ‘ The authorities have looked at them … and have decided they do not justify prosecution … we should be looking towards reintegration and moving away from any notion that we are going to lose a generation due to this travel.
‘It’s not a decision MI5 and others will have taken lightly. But they have left space, and I think they are right to do so, for those who travelled out of a sense of naivety, possibly with some brainwashing … in their midteens, and who return in a state of utter disillusionment.
‘And we have to leave space for those individuals to be diverted away from the criminal courts.’
The QC, who prosecuted the failed July 21 bombers, stressed in a BBC radio interview not all Britons who joined IS should avoid prosecution as some will have ‘committed the most serious criminal offences’.
It comes a day after EU security commissioner Julian King said up to 8,000 fighters may return to Europe after the fall of Raqqa.
Security sources said up to half of the estimated 850 Britons sus- pected to have gone to Syria and Iraq are believed to be back in the UK. Last year officials admitted just 14 of the 350 British IS fighters known to have returned had faced court.
Tom Wilson, of security thinktank The Henry Jackson Society, said: ‘ Clearly these returning Islamic State fighters pose an unimaginably serious threat …
‘These are individuals who have not only chosen to join a terrorist organisation, but who in many cases will have been responsible for perpetrating atrocities … There is a very clear moral duty to bring such people to justice.
‘To pretend they can simply be reintegrated into British society not only shows a terribly naive misunderstanding of the jihadist ideology … but also a reckless disregard for the wellbeing of everyone else in British society.’
Security expert Professor Anthony Glees, of Buckingham University, branded Mr Hill’s comments ‘deeply disturbing’. He said: ‘Every person who has gone to fight for Islamic State is potentially a jihadist with a cause.
‘To believe otherwise is totally naive, not a good place to be for a reviewer of counter-terrorist legislation. Most decent Brits … believe those who went off to fight for IS [and] swore allegiance to it forfeited any right to return.’
This week MI5 chief Andrew Parker warned the terror threat facing Britain was worse than at any time in his 34-year career. He said MI5 has more than 500 live investigations, with 3,000 people suspected of extremist activities.
Police and MI5 attempt to contact all those who return from the war zone. Some may be left alone if they went only to experience life in the so- called caliphate or to deliver humanitarian aid, but others will be put under surveillance.
Others will be referred to mental health services or the Channel deradicalisation programme.
Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, who sits on the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: ‘The presumption should be that all people who went to join Islamic State should be dealt with by the criminal justice system unless there is a good reason why not.’
Scotland Yard said Britons involved in terrorism in Syria have the ‘potential to pose a significant threat’ and all those returning ‘must expect to be reviewed’.
÷Jihadis supporting IS have sent 67,000 tweets in English since the start of September, the equivalent of one every minute.
Fanatics have created and shared 44,000 web links to the group’s propaganda this year, despite Government vows to get tough on internet giants over a failure to tackle extremist content.
‘Unimaginably serious threat’