Move to close ‘loophole’ behind Choudary release
THE legal loophole that allowed Anjem Choudary to walk free from prison just halfway through his sentence will be closed, Ben Wallace, the security minister, has said.
The Home Office will ensure that jihadists convicted of “inviting” support for terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) will no longer be eligible for such an early release, he promised.
However, the announcement was last night branded “too little too late”.
Mr Choudary was released on Friday after serving just half of his five-and-ahalf-year sentence.
He is subject to strict bail conditions that will lapse when his licence period ends in two-and-a-half years’ time, leaving him a free man.
Had the loophole been closed earlier, Choudary would likely have been taken “out of action” for up to 15 years with an extended licence period, experts said. Failure to do so was described as “catastrophic”.
Nikita Malik, the director of the Henry Jackson Society’s Centre on Radicalisation and Terrorism told The Daily Telegraph: “It’s welcome that the Government is acting now but the horse has already bolted. The Government should have closed this loophole years ago – if they had, Choudary would still have years on his sentence to serve. Terrorism is just as serious as violent or sexual offending and should have been treated as such.”
When Mr Justice Holroyde sentenced Choudary in September 2016, he said: “You show no remorse at all for anything you have said or done, and I have no doubt you will continue to communicate your message whenever you can.” Yet he said he had no power to impose an extended sentence.
Bringing the offence of inviting support for terrorist groups within the scope of the extended determinate sentence programme, would allow a “dangerous” offender to be kept in jail beyond the halfway point of his tariff. Choudary would have had to convince the parole board that he was a reformed character and had taken part in all the relevant prison training courses even to be considered for early release.
It is feared the 51-year-old father-offive has no intention of giving up his support for Isil. Last week, it was claimed that he refused to engage in deradicalisation programmes in jail.
In a 2014 recording, released by The Sun yesterday, Mr Choudary revealed he would continue supporting jihadism and said it was “the duty of every Muslim to give their allegiance” to Isil.
Prof Anthony Glees, the director of Buckingham University’s Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said he could not understand the logic of allowing someone like Choudary, who had expressed no contrition, to be freed. “He is a clear and present danger. I don’t think the Government has got the focus on these surgical issues of national security or the focus to find the time to correct their own mistakes.”
“I don’t have much confidence that Mr Wallace, for all his strengths, can move this great hulking container ship of Parliament at the moment. Unfortunately, the shire horse of jihadism has bolted,” added Prof Glees.