Convicted jihadist who gamed system to bring terror to London
Imprisoned in 2012 for a plot to bomb the Stock Exchange, Khan was freed last year after convincing authorities that he had renounced his extremist views. His indefinite jail term was cut on appeal
WHEN Usman Khan put pen to paper from his cell at Belmarsh Prison seven years ago, he begged for the chance to “prove” he no longer harboured extremist Islamist views or posed a threat to the British public.
Insisting his conviction for being part of a terror cell that planned to bomb the London Stock Exchange stemmed from mere immaturity, he added: “Now I am much more mature and want to live my life as a good Muslim and also a good citizen of Britain.”
Khan’s letter pleading to join a Home Office “deradicalisation course” was the start of his plan to hoodwink the British authorities and ultimately commit terrorism on the streets of London.
A year earlier, the judge who sentenced him to a technically limitless jail term had no doubt that Khan had embarked on a “serious long-term venture in terrorism”. In his sentencing notes, Mr Justice Wilkie singled him out from other extremists on trial because he was clearly a devious and scheming man dedicated to his hateful ideology.
He wrote that Khan’s “ability to act on a strategic level and to consider the long term at the price of eschewing immediate spontaneous action” meant he should be released only if and when a parole board was convinced he no longer posed a threat.
Despite being jailed for planning to create a terror camp in Pakistan to train British jihadis, Khan later won an appeal against that strict jail term and was freed from Whitemoor prison in December last year.
His ability to play the democratic legal system he loathed so much is as shocking as it is tragic. Born the youngest of three children in Stoke-on-Trent in 1991, he became passionate about the troubles that gripped his family’s homeland of Pakistan. At 14, he joined youngsters at stalls in Stoke espousing a hate-filled interpretation of Islam.
His family home was raided in 2008 following community concerns about the “hot headed” 17-year-old, prompting Khan to declare his innocence to his local paper using a false name. No charges were brought.
In an unearthed interview with the BBC from that year Khan also claimed he was not a terrorist. He said: “I’ve been born and bred in England, in Stoke-On-Trent, in Cobridge, and all the community knows me and they will know, if you ask them, they will know like these labels what they’re putting on us, like terrorist, this, that, they will know I ain’t no terrorist.”
But his membership from 2010 of
‘Despite the monitoring he was subjected to, he was able to convince everyone he was well on the way to being a reformed character’
the so-called “Stoke Three” resulted in the security services beginning covert surveillance on him.
That group met six other extremists to discuss plots to recruit and train home-grown terrorists, embark on letter-bomb campaigns, blow up pubs and use a pipe bomb to kill and maim people at the London Stock Exchange.
A madrassa (school) for terrorists would be built on land Khan’s family owned in Kashmir. But, while the rest of the cell wanted to begin attacks immediately, the trial judge Mr Justice Wilkie noted how Khan and his two Stoke friends were pursuing a “longterm and sustained path [to become] more serious and effective terrorists”.
After his arrest, Khan was the first to plead guilty to planning a terror camp, knowing he would get a reduction in sentence.
In 2012, he was imprisoned for public protection for 16 years but could only be considered for release if a parole board was convinced he posed no threat. That sentence was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2013. Last December, Khan left Whitemoor Prison before making his way to the Staitheford House bail hostel in Stafford.
His imprisonment had given him ample opportunity to learn to play the system. Under the terms of his licence he was required to wear an electronic tag, and was assigned a specialist antiextremist parole officer, whom he met twice weekly.
Khan was understood to have been banned from visiting London. If he had ventured near the capital his tag would have raised the alarm.
In addition, Khan was signed up to the secretive Desistance and Disengagement programme (DDP) – a major part of the government’s refreshed counter terror strategy.
The DDP, launched in 2016 as an arm of Prevent, is meant to offer a wide range of intensive, tailored interventions and practical support, intended to tackle the drivers of radicalisation.
Khan was given permission to attend an event in Whitehall earlier this year, accompanied by a police minder, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. The visit went without a hitch, which reassured the police and probation service, who allowed Khan to attend the Cambridge University justice event run by Learning Together on Friday.
It is understood those on the Cambridge University programme felt Khan “showed no cause for concern” during their meetings.
It is also believed his probation team would have had to grant him permission to travel to London to attend the Learning Together event at Fishmongers’ Hall next to London Bridge.
Last night, neighbours near a house he was known to frequent in Stafford recalled a quiet man who wore Western dress. A property linked to his wider family in Stoke-on-Trent was being searched by teams of forensic police officers.
Both the Metropolitan and Staffordshire police forces would not comment on whether they had made any arrests connected with Friday’s attack.
Harry Fletcher, a criminal justice expert, said: “Khan has clearly played the system very well. Despite the monitoring he was subjected to, he was able to convince everyone he was well on the way to being a reformed character.”