Terror knifeman let out of jail ‘was still loyal to Islamic State’
Rampage left two injured before fanatic shot dead
A CONVICTED terrorist said he was ‘not finished with these non-believers’ before being released from jail and stabbing two people in the street.
Sudesh Amman, 20, was shot dead by surveillance officers 62 seconds after he grabbed a kitchen knife from a discount store and ran amok in a fake suicide vest.
An inquest into his death was told yesterday that notes written in Arabic expressing loyalty to Islamic State had been found in his cell.
He was in a segregated section of HMP Belmarsh in south-east London for taking part in a riot – after which he was reported for telling a fellow inmate he was ‘not finished with these non-believers yet’.
Detective Chief Superintendent Alexis Boon wrote to prison governor Rob Davis asking whether Amman’s sentence could be extended because of the danger he represented.
He had been jailed for three years
‘He seemed to feel he had celebrity status’
and four months for possessing and disseminating terrorist material and was due for early release after serving 20 months. Mr Davis told the officer a longer sentence was not possible because the offences did not justify it.
Amman was released to a probationary hostel on January 23 last year and carried out his attack in Streatham, south London, ten days later.
‘While in prison he appeared to retain an extremist mindset and appeared still intent on carrying out acts of violence on his release,’ Detective Superintendent Dominic Murphy told the Royal Courts of Justice.
‘He also seemed to feel he had celebrity status as a result of being convicted of terrorist offences.’
Amman, whose family moved to Britain from Sri Lanka shortly before his birth in 1999, had been arrested as a teenager for trying to ram glass into a classmate’s face, the inquest heard.
The eldest of six brothers, he was suspended from school on three occasions: for being drunk in 2015, for smoking in 2016 and for attacking another pupil with weapons the same year.
He was convicted of possession of cannabis and threatening a person with a weapon in June 2017 and a year later was caught posting extremist material on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
He pleaded guilty that November to 13 terror charges.
Released to a hostel with a curfew and an ankle tag, Amman was under surveillance by MI5 and counter-terror police. This was upgraded to 24-hour monitoring from armed officers after he was seen looking at knives and buying items that could be used for a fake suicide vest.
On February 2 last year Amman grabbed a carving knife from the Low Price Store in Streatham, ran from the shop and stabbed Monika Luftner, a 52-year-old nursery school teacher, in the back.
He then knifed a male passerby in the torso before being confronted by two armed surveillance officers.
They fired six bullets and Amman was pronounced dead 90 minutes later, once explosives experts had established that the belt wrapped around his body was harmless.
Mr Murphy said there was no evidence Amman had conspired with anyone else, despite Islamic State claiming responsibility for the ‘lone wolf’ attack.
His family’s lawyer, Rajiv Menon QC, suggested he should have been detained after the discovery of the note pledging allegiance to Islamic State.
He said police continued to have ‘significant concerns about the risk he posed on release and the governor responded, effectively saying there was nothing he could do’.
The inquest continues.