Hate preacher’s licence under urgent review after atrocity
ANJEM CHOUDARY, Britain’s most notorious hate cleric, will be subjected to even tighter controls, The Daily Telegraph has learnt, after a photograph emerged of him standing side-by-side with the London Bridge terrorist.
Well-placed sources said Choudary’s licence conditions were under urgent review as part of a crackdown on 69 jihadist terrorists freed from jail and living in the community.
A further estimated 150 extremists in prison due for release also face tougher restrictions. Boris Johnson last night called for an overhaul of the system that enabled Usman Khan to be released automatically from prison halfway through his sentence and a year before his attack.
He said: “You have to be realistic and what you must not have is a system of automatic early release and it was the automaticity that let us down here, because in the end the law had no choice but to let him out and then to hope that things would turn out well. I don’t think that was a reasonable expectation given what we knew about him.”
A jihadist convicted of trying to join Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in Syria in 2015 was sent back to jail for two years yesterday for hiding a mobile phone from counterterror police. It is understood a further half dozen convicted terrorists will be recalled or arrested within a week.
Counter-terrorism police are in a race against time to lock up convicted terrorists living in the community amid concern they may go on the run or launch attacks, fearing they may be rearrested. To reassure the public, policing at Christmas markets in major cities was being stepped up as well as at the showpiece Winter Wonderland event at Hyde Park in central London.
Government officials are convinced that Khan “hoodwinked” supervisors, “deceiving” them into allowing him to travel unaccompanied from his home in Stafford to London to attend the conference, where he stabbed to death Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23.
It is understood officials and police – gave a green light to the trip less than a
month earlier, deeming Khan, 28, a “low risk”, having appeared to be compliant to being deradicalised.
A photograph emerged yesterday of Khan standing next to Choudary in Stokeon-trent in March 2009 at a Muslim law conference organised by al-muhajiroun, a group banned under antiterror legislation.
Choudary was the keynote speaker and shared a platform with Khan, who at the time was still a teenager. Within the year, Khan had hatched a plot with co-conspirators to blow up the London Stock Exchange and establish a terror training camp in Pakistan. Khan was jailed for 16 years but released automatically on licence last December having served half his sentence.
The influence of Choudary will put him under renewed scrutiny. ITV News reported last night that Khan had met another former member of al-muhajiroun following his release from jail.
Government sources said Choudary’s licence conditions were now under review. “We need to look at his whole licencing because we need to make sure vulnerable people are not going to be radicalised by him,” said the source, explaining that Friday’s attack allowed officials to reassess the risk posed by all freed terrorists.
At the time he was jailed for a terror offence in 2016, Choudary had been linked to 15 terror plots dating back almost 20 years and had connections to hundreds of British jihadists who fled to Syria to fight. Choudary was released in October last year.
The Telegraph has learnt that he has begun visiting a mosque close to his home in Ilford, east London. He is already subject to some of the most stringent living conditions ever put in place on a convict.
Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, has ordered a case-by-case review while sources said “any breaches of licences would lead to immediate recalls”. New legislation is also being looked at to tighten up the supervision of terrorists released into the community.
Mr Buckland said: “The MAPPA [multi-agency public protection arrangements] process needs to be looked at again in light of Friday’s terrible events and if further legislation is required, we will certainly look at that. The Prime Minister has already signalled his intention to introduce new terrorism laws and I wholeheartedly support that.”
According to one source, 67 freed terrorists will be visited by police over the next few days to assess if they have breached licence conditions. The source added: “We are expecting more recalls.”