Returning UK jihadists to face 10 years in jail
Security services support Home Office move to prosecute those returning from designated countries
British jihadists returning from Syria and similar countries could face 10 years in prison under Home Office plans to tackle foreign fighters. The new rules will be introduced in the Counter-terror Bill and mean that anyone who is found to have travelled to a designated country could be prosecuted on their return, even if they are not a member of a banned terror group. Only those working for aid charities or media organisations will be exempt from arrest.
BRITISH Jihadis returning from Syria and similar countries could face 10 years in prison under Home Office plans to tackle foreign fighters.
The new rules will be introduced in the Counter-terror Bill and mean that anyone who is found to have travelled to a designated country could be prosecuted on their return, even if they are not a member of a banned terror group.
Only those working for aid charities or media organisations will be exempt from arrest.
The new plan announced yesterday will make it easier to jail those who travel abroad to fight for extremist groups. Currently it is difficult to criminalise British nationals who travel to Syria unless it can be proven that they aided an organisation such as the socalled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). The rules would be enforced by Max Hill QC, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, who has previously called for those returning from countries such as Syria to be rehabilitated. He was, however, heavily criticised for the remarks and accused of being soft on terror threats.
Speaking last year Mr Hill said: “We are told that we do have a significant number already back in the country who have previously gone to Iraq and Syria. That means that the authorities have looked at them, and looked at them hard, and have decided that they do not justify prosecution. Really we should be looking towards reintegration, and moving away from any notion that we are going to lose a generation to this travel.”
Backing the changes, which were welcomed by campaigners and crossparty MPS, Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, said last night: “Those who travel abroad to fight in terrorist conflicts pose a threat to us all and need to be stopped. This offence will help make our streets a safer place.
“The proposed law has the full support of the security services and our law enforcement partners.”
Details of the proposed new offence were set out in an amendment to the Counter-terrorism and Border Security Bill, which was unveiled earlier this year.
The document says: “This new clause would provide for an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 of entering, or remaining in, an area outside the United Kingdom that has been designated in regulations made by the Secretary of State.”
The list will be agreed by Parliament. The Government estimates that more than 900 individuals “of national security” concern have travelled from the UK to engage with the conflict in Syria. Of those, about a fifth have been killed and approximately 40 per cent have returned.
The majority of those who have come back did so in the earlier stages of the conflict, and a “significant proportion” are assessed as no longer being of national security concern.
John Woodcock MP, a Home affairs committee member who has been campaigning for the government to adopt this law, said: “This is great news and should finally give security forces the power they need to lock up British Jihadis who are going free when they return to the UK because of lack of admissible evidence.”