PM: Terror suspects should give up passports

TERROR suspects may be refused bail unless they surrender their passports, David Cameron said yesterday. The Prime Minister said he would look at tightening the law after the case of Siddhartha Dhar, a Muslim extremist who slipped out of Britain in September 2014 to join Islamic State (IS) while on police bail.

The intervention came as Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britain’s most senior counterterrorism officer, warned that existing bail rules were ‘weak and toothless’.

Scotland Yard was humiliated last week when it emerged Dhar – now known as Abu Rumaysah – was the prime suspect as the new ‘Jihadi John’ in the latest gruesome IS execution video. The 32year-old Londoner skipped bail in September 2014 on terrorrelated charges and travelled to

‘He had been on TV supporting IS’

Paris by coach with his family, despite being asked by police to surrender his passport. Police sent a letter to Dhar asking for the document on November 7 – six weeks after he left for Syria.

Questioned by the Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday, Mr Rowley said it was not a crime to ignore a condition imposed by police – only to fail to answer bail on the required date. He said there were 339 counter-terror arrests in Britain last year, with one-third of suspects still on bail.

Keith Vaz, the committee’s Labour chairman, asked Mr Cameron to tighten the law, saying: ‘He (Dhar) had been on television supporting IS, he mentored one of Lee Rigby’s killers, was a member of al-Muhajiroun, and was arrested on terror charges, taken to the police station, and bailed before he gave up his passport.’

Mr Cameron defended the police, saying they searched Dhar’s home but were unable to find his passport. He acknowledged the need for new powers to prevent a repeat of the fiasco: ‘Determining nationality and seizing passports more quickly is a very good idea so I will happily look at those powers.’