Vetting call lasted just 1 hour
OSAMA Bin Laden’s alleged UK mouthpiece was waved back into Britain after a police quiz lasting just ONE HOUR.
Spooks were powerless to block Adel Abdel Bary’s deportation from the US because he had been granted asylum here in the 1990s.
The Egyptian was convicted after US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which left 224 dead in 1998.
He was extradited from the UK in 2012 and served just eight years of a 25-year term in the States.
Then he flew back into Britain and a reunion with his wife at their £1million council home in north London – even though anti-terror officers from SO15 warned “he does pose a risk”.
Details of his return emerged for the first time during a hearing into ongoing monitoring. Documents show cops spoke to Bary for 60 minutes on a video call to the US. The documents state: “Bary has had previous and significant involvement with al-Qaeda. Bary’s current mindset and extremist ideology is largely unknown and untested.
“It is assessed by SO15 that he does pose a risk to security of the UK, even if the extent... is difficult to quantify.
“From the recent initial risk interview... Bary has commented he has no desire to reoffend or re-engage upon return to the UK and wishes to rebuild
family relationships, posing no threat to the UK. Although initially positive, this commitment is untested and would require assessment over time following release and reintegration in the community.
“Accordingly, Bary’s commitment to desist and disengage are also untested.”
The US charged Bary, 61, with 285 offences but he admittted just a handful, including threatening to kill by means of explosive and conspiracy to murder US citizens abroad. He was granted “mercy release” on the grounds he was so overweight he might die if he caught Covid. He returned to the UK in 2020.
Last month he challenged a Scotland Yard monitoring order, citing anxiety, trauma, breach of human rights and claiming it would exacerbate the PTSD “associated with imprisonment and torture in Egypt, then imprisonment in the UK and US”. But a High Court judge sanctioned the order – and it emerged his immigration status is currently under review by Priti Patel.
The judgment said: “Mr Bary is not subject to licence conditions. But the Home Secretary is reviewing his immigration status and he has been subject to immigration bail conditions and restricted leave to remain.”
The Home Office said: “Safety and security is the first priority and the police, security and intelligence agencies have a range of powers available to manage individuals.”
Scotland Yard declined to comment. In 2012 the US alleged Bary was the London cell leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which merged with al-Qaeda in 1998. He leased premises which became Bin Laden’s “media information office”.
Bary’s son Abdel-Majed Abdel, a former rapper, joined Islamic State in Syria and posed with a severed head.