Secret intelligence would allow Parole Board to prevent prisoners’ release
High Court ruling could let board access evidence that could justify keeping a terrorist behind bars
THE Parole Board could get access to top-secret intelligence on jailed terrorists’ potential plots and associates to prevent their release from prison, according to a watchdog.
The board, which will determine when and how up to 231 terrorists are released, has been grappling with how to assess highly sensitive information from prison intelligence, other inmates and the security services without compromising their sources.
A legal judgment by the High Court has signposted a route by which it could more easily get access to the intelligence that could provide evidence to justify blocking the release of a terrorist, said Jonathan Hall QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.
In a case involving a young extremist who befriended Sudesh Amman, the Streatham knife attacker, before his release, the High Court ruled that the youth court could have access to “gisted intelligence”.
This is intelligence where the court got the “gist” of the intelligence about the young man but not the underlying detail, enabling it to agree to a request by Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, to delay the release of the extremist and keep him in jail.
The intelligence revealed the youth’s prison contacts with Amman, who was shot dead by police after a knife attack in Streatham High Street, and the “high risk” that he might seek to mount a copycat attack similar to Amman’s and the one by Usman Khan, the London Bridge killer.
The decision has given prison and probation services an extra two months to try to deradicalise and rehabilitate the man before his release into the community on May 18 under tight security.
Mr Hall told The Daily Telegraph: “The most interesting thing about the case, in my view, is that the High Court upheld the use of gisted – or very briefly summarised – intelligence.
“The High Court decided it was acceptable for the Youth Court to take account of information on the risk posed by the youth, without the Youth Court being shown the detailed underlying intelligence. This is of interest because the Parole Board is having to grapple with how they can respond to intelligence about risk posed by prisoners applying for release.
“[The board] needs to act fairly, but the authorities do not want sensitive sources of intelligence to be jeopardised. The use of gisted intelligence may be one way of squaring this circle.”
Mr Hall has been asked by the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office to review the public protection arrangements for high-risk released terrorists, which were breached in the London Bridge and Streatham attacks.