Terror watchdog who wants to let off returning IS fighters meets Islamist group that called Jihadi John ‘beautiful’
BRITAIN’s terror watchdog was attacked yesterday for meeting an Islamist group that praised the murderer known as Jihadi John as a ‘beautiful young man’.
Max Hill, QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, proudly declared on his blog that he had met representatives of Cage – despite warnings about giving succour to an organisation shunned by the Government due to its reputation as craven apologists for terrorism.
The lawyer, who prosecuted several high-profile terrorism cases before taking on the regulator role in February, spent 90 minutes with the campaign group listening to its views on terrorism legislation.
The meeting came a month after the international director of Cage, Muhammad Rabbani, was convicted of a terrorism offence and fined for refusing to give police the PIN number of his mobile phone when he was stopped and searched at Heathrow Airport last November.
Mr Hill attempted to justify his meeting on October 27, writing in his blog it was his role to ‘engage with anyone who is affected in any way by the legislation’, adding that Cage states it aims to ‘empower communities impacted by the War on Terror’. Cage’s extraordinary remarks about British Islamic state executioner Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, after his death in 2015 sparked outrage. Mr Hill’s predecessor Lord Carlile said: ‘Cage is an organisation with a warped view. No sensible person should be funding it.’
In stark contrast, Mr Hill now believes it is crucial to consult the group to ‘inform’ his views on terrorism legislation. The meeting came only days after the regulator provoked outrage by suggesting ‘naive’ militants returning from syria should reintegrated into the UK instead of facing prosecution.
Last night critics condemned Mr Hill’s meeting with Cage.
security expert Professor Anthony Glees, of Buckingham University, said: ‘I do not believe it is part of his job to meet with such an organisation. It gives out a signal he is open to discussions with them on future and current counter-terrorism legislation, which is completely unacceptable and wholly wrong.
‘This is potentially a very dangerous organisation. He should not be sending out a message that he is open to lobbying from a group that has an extremist position totally at odds with mainstream British attitudes towards Islamist extremism.’
Professor Glees also questioned Amber Rudd’s appointment of Mr Hill, whose short tenure has been engulfed in controversy after he was rebuked by ministers and prosecutors for recently claiming tough new laws to prosecute extremists would be wrong despite a string of jihadist attacks.
Hannah stuart, co-head of security and extremism at the think tank Policy Exchange, said: ‘For Cage, the central issue is engagement and legitimacy — something, perhaps naively, the new watchdog seems all too willing to give away.’
But Mr Hill denied the meeting lent Cage credibility, saying: ‘As the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, it is my duty and within my remit to engage with anyone who is affected in any way by the legislation. This not only helps inform my annual review of the legislation but also informs my wider contextual understanding of how our laws apply generally to society.’
‘A dangerous organisation’