Jihadis freed early could be housed next to YOU
CONVICTED jihadis freed early from prison are being housed in the heart of communities at taxpayers’ expense, sometimes just a stone’s throw from potential terror targets.
One convicted terrorist who used his student loan to travel to Syria to join Islamic State was put in a house opposite a busy hotel and just 650 yards from Wembley Stadium, with Brent Council paying his rent.
Yahya Rashid, 23, travelled to the Turkey/syria border with four others fromwembley Mosque in late 2014.
He returned to the UK in March 2015. In November, he was jailed for five years on terrorism charges.
He was released in 2018 and court records show he was living in Wembley when he was arrested for breaching his licence conditions in December 2019 after being found in possession of a secret mobile phone.
He will have to serve the remainder of his five-year sentence and a further 12 months for failing without reasonable excuse, to notify police of relevant contact details.
A Probation Service spokesman said a change in Rashid’s circumstances meant Brent Council had to move him to the property at short notice. He was previously in an “approved premises”.
The spokesman said: “Approval was only given following a thorough risk assessment by the probation service and police.
“The highest-risk offenders are housed in supervised probation accommodation following their release from prison.”
A Brent Council spokesman said:
“We have a statutory requirement to provide accommodation for homeless people who meet the criteria of the legislation. This includes people who have a criminal conviction for a serious offence.”
Rashid is not the only jihadi to have been living in the community.
Sudesh Amman, 20, who was shot dead by police after stabbing two people in Streatham, south London, last Sunday, was staying at a bail hostel in nearby Tulse Hill.
Usman Khan, who murdered two people in the London Bridge attack in November, had been staying in a temporary hostel next to a pub in Stafford since his release in 2018.
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary was in a bail hostel in Camden, north London, after being released from jail.
Omar Latif, 36, one of eight men jailed with Khan in 2012 for plotting terror attacks, was given a council house in Cardiff after his release.
Records show he has set up a company described as selling via mail order and online, and shocked neighbours had no idea of his past.
Neither the Home Office nor South Wales Police refused to say what monitoring Latif is under.
● A CONVICTED terrorist was yesterday remanded in custody accused of failing to notify the authorities about an address where he previously lived. Mohammed Abdul Hasnath, 27, of Stepney, east London, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court to face a charge of failing to comply with counter-terrorism conditions imposed after his release.
‘Rashid was housed opposite a busy hotel and 650 yards from Wembley’