'High-risk' extremist to be released from jail despite fears over copycat terrorist attack

A “high risk” extremist who befriended the Streatham knife attacker in jail will be released this month despite official fears that he could try to mount a copycat terror attack.

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, took the “exceptional” step of going to court in March to extend the young extremist’s jail sentence by two months because of his risk to the public and to give the prison and probation services more time to try to rehabilitate him.

However, he now has no option but to release the young man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, despite concerns his release could risk a repeat of the London Bridge and Streatham attacks mounted by recently-released prisoners.

The young man - who befriended Streatham knifeman Sudesh Amman while in prison - was not covered by the Government’s retrospective law increasing terrorists’ jail terms because he had been jailed for a fixed term, rather than under early release rules.

Rosemary Davidson, representing Mr Buckland, "What we have is the possibility of a high risk and highly vulnerable prisoner being released into a high risk environment. 

“There is a pattern of three terrorist tragic offences in just three months, basically one a month, since late November. These are individuals who follow a common modus operandi.”

The young man was jailed for encouraging right wing terrorism but converted in jail to Islam. His governor said he had concerns after the young man and the Streatham terrorist appeared to have regularly said hello to each other and may have met in Islamic classes with imams.

He said: "Our concern is that we see the speed of conversion to Islam while in prison, the dealings that he has had with some of the prisoners, and it mirrors the same ideology and risk factors as other former prisoners who have gone on to commit terrorism."

He added: "We noticed a change in behaviour and reporting on the defendant in meetings with staff. The intelligence had come in after the Streatham attack.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “When they are released, offenders are subject to robust safeguards and monitoring to protect the public and prevent future attacks.”

Dr Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, said: “The Government did away with Control Orders, which placed restrictions on such offenders over civil liberty concerns, yet now finds their replacements, TPIMs, too expensive to use widely.

' Given, the dangerous terrorists due for release, the Government will need to revisit the controls it can impose on such offenders, particularly when with extended sentences they will be serving short or no spells on probation”.

Jonathan Hall, QC, the independent reviewer of terrorist legislation, said that because the sentence was a detention and training order - which allowed for the detention to be extended up to two months - the move did not set a wider precedent.

However, he noted that such orders were more difficult to administer after release as there was no power of immediate recall which meant the MoJ would have to apply to the youth court to revoke. 'This means that they are not suitable for dealing with high risk offenders whose risk suddenly spikes,' he said.

However, the most notable feature of the case was the decision by the High Court to allow the use of 'gisted intelligence' which allowed the youth court to consider evidence without compromising the sensitive sources from which it came.