Terror suspect was on MI5 list
Security service had investigated Libyan Khairi Saadallah, 25, over jihadist fears Questions over whether he should have been at large, after early release from jail Teacher named as one of three people killed in Reading park knife attack
THE terror suspect accused of killing three people in a Reading park had been investigated by MI5, it emerged last night.
Khairi Saadallah, 25, was put on the security service’s radar less than a year before Saturday’s attack after a tip-off that he planned to go to his native Libya where it was feared he wanted to join a militant jihadist group. But the file was closed after two months when no evidence was found to support the claim.
Questions remained last night over whether Saadallah should have been at large at the time of Saturday evening’s attack in a park in the Berkshire town, after being released early from prison this month for minor offences.
The UK is prevented from deporting Libyan prisoners after their sentence because to do so would breach their human rights owing to the dangers posed there. Sources said last night that Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was planning to crack down on asylum applications and speed up deportation of foreign offenders as part of the Government’s plans to reform the asylum system.
Boris Johnson said yesterday the Government was determined to learn lessons from the terrorist outrage.
The Prime Minister said he was “sickened and appalled” and that the police must be allowed to get on with of investigating the incident. But he added: “If there are lessons we need to learn about how we handle such cases and how we handle the events leading up to such cases then we will learn those lessons and we will not hesitate to take action where necessary.”
It came as one of the victims was named last night as James Furlong, 36, head of history at a school in Wokingham, described by colleagues as a “kind and gentle man”. His parents last night paid tribute to their “beautiful, intelligent, honest and fun” son.
It also emerged that Saadallah, who is understood to have had mental health problems, came to the UK as an illegal immigrant in 2012 and was granted asylum in 2018. He told friends in the UK that he had fought as a child soldier to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi.
Saadallah is the latest Libyan accused of a terrorist act on UK soil, following the bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London and the suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena in 2017.
Saadallah lived in Manchester when he arrived in the UK and former neighbours in Reading suggested he moved in the same circles as Salman Abedi, who carried out the Manchester attack, when he lived in the North West. Home
Office sources have denied any evidence of a connection. Whitehall sources said Saadallah came “fleetingly” on to MI5’S radar over “information suggesting he had travel aspirations”. The sources stressed Saadallah was one of about 30,000 names on the terror suspect list in 2019 but that he was never elevated to a “subject of interest” – reserved for the 3,000 suspects posing a greater threat to national security.
Saadallah remained in custody after his arrest on Saturday. He was rearrested last night under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which means officers now have 28 days in which to charge him. Counter-terror officers said the investigation “continues to move at a fast pace” while John Campbell, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, said: “I am sure we would all want to recognise the bravery of those police officers responding, but also that a number of members of the public were helping my officers and the victims at what was a very distressing scene.”
Witnesses described a man entering the park, shouting something “unintelligible”, possibly in a foreign language, before stabbing a group of people with a knife with a blade at least five inches long. He attacked a second group and then fled before being tackled by police officers.
Saadallah’s flat, a mile from the scene of the attack, was raided by counterterrorism police early yesterday.
Officers yesterday warned people to stay alert in parks amid fears of lone wolf attacks targeting crowds gathered outside owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the head of counter terrorism policing, said yesterday: “Please continue with your daily lives, but be alert, not alarmed, when you are out in public. If you see anything suspicious, anything at all that makes you feel suspicious, then please report it.”
Dr Alan Mendoza, of the Henry Jackson Society, said: “In order to safeguard the public, the Home Secretary must be able to remove those foreign nationals including asylum seekers who no longer have the right of abode.
“Yet over time, human rights case law has expanded so far as to make that near impossible with some nationals. This cannot be right, the Home Secretary’s powers must be restored”
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said this was “not a time for party politics” and that he was willing to work with the Government to see if there are “lessons that can be learnt”. He added: “And all of our thoughts are with those who have lost someone in this.”
KHAIRI SAADALLAH boasted to friends that he had fought as a child soldier to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi.
He claimed he had been forced to move to the UK because his life was in danger as a result.
Those who knew him as he embarked on a new life in Manchester and later, Reading, yesterday described an unpredictable character who smoked cannabis – a habit which friends believed affected his personality.
Saadallah, 25, suffered from a mental health condition that meant he heard voices in his head and had psychotic episodes for which he took medication, a cousin told The Daily Telegraph.
“He always said it was like someone cast a spell on him,” she said. “He thought people were following him.”
The cousin, 36, who does not want to be identified, was with family who had gathered at his parents’ house in Libya last night as they desperately sought information and tried to come to terms with the news of his arrest.
She told how Saadallah had visited the UK several times before deciding to move permanently and eventually convert to Christianity. “He felt his life was at risk in Libya because he did not live like a Muslim; he drank, he had girlfriends, he partied,” she said.
“He was essentially British. When he claimed asylum, Libya was his homeland but England was his home.”
Saadallah was about 18 when he moved to Bury, studying computing and communications at college and living with friends. He told fellow students he had been in the military in Libya and had killed people fighting against Col Gaddafi.
One friend said: “He was keen to speak about the violence in Libya. But I always got the impression he was just a bit lonely, he had left his country and his family and just wanted to be around people.
“That’s why he was always organising parties, he enjoyed company.” Another friend who knew him in Bury said: “He lived in a houseshare with people from different countries. He had crazy friends, they had big parties.
“He would describe himself as a Libyan soldier and said he had escaped because he didn’t want to be in the army.” However, his cousin strongly disputed that he had been a teenage soldier.
“The reason he left Libya was the killing,” she said. “He hated the violence. He tried to help solve the problem, that’s what made him depressed.”
Friends in Manchester described him as a good friend, but also said they were aware he had mental health issues.
“He was the nicest guy I’ve ever met but he definitely had something wrong with his head,” one told The Telegraph.
Greater Manchester is popular with Libyans but Saadallah wanted to live outside of the Arab community, his cousin said. In 2014, he “just went missing”, apparently failing to tell friends.
He eventually settled in Reading, taking various jobs in health and social care and lived intermittently with an older cousin in a small block of flats on Prospect Street. A neighbour there said: “Khairi was very quiet, rarely spoke and wore very Western clothes.”
Saadallah came to the UK from wartorn Libya in 2012 because he could not bear the violence, his family claimed.
However, those who knew him in Manchester and Reading described an unpredictable character who smoked cannabis – a habit which friends believed affected his personality.
A cousin revealed he had mental health problems which caused him to hear voices and fear he was being followed.
Three years ago, Saadallah started dating a British woman who was “very religious” and he started going to church, eventually converting to
Christianity. The couple have since parted company.
The cousin said after he had converted to Christianity he had a tattoo of a cross etched on his arm.
“He’s not Muslim any more,” she said. “It’s like he’s always been in the UK.”
She added that Saadallah had a “very bad mental disturbance” which was exacerbated when he went to prison in 2017 for a minor non-terrorist offence.
She said: “His mother is crying all the time, saying: ‘My son doesn’t like violence. I can’t believe he could do this.’
“She is very, very sorry for the victims and their families and has great sympathy; she just can’t believe this has happened.”
The cousin claimed that he was only at the scene of the incident because he was having a barbecue in Forbury Gardens on Saturday with friends, and could not possibly have been responsible for the multiple fatal stabbings.
A relative, believed to be Saadallah’s brother, last night complained about the arrest and accused the UK of being racist. Mo Saadallah, who has lived in Reading but is currently believed to be in Libya, added: “F--- England.”