More than 160 terrorists released early in seven years, MPs told

More than 160 convicted terrorists have been released early in the last seven years, MPs have been told, as the Commons debated the government’s emergency terror legislation.

Conservative MP John Hayes, a former security minister, said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the “significant” numbers contained in research from the House of Commons library.

He said this figure did not include offenders who had spent fewer than 12 months in prison.

The disclosure was made as MPs debated the government’s Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill, with the legislation clearing all of its Commons stages on Wednesday.

This will stop around 50 terrorists being automatically released halfway through their sentences.

The bill will ensure that terrorist offenders cannot be released early without what the government says is a “thorough risk assessment” from the Parole Board.

Those who are deemed to still be a threat to public safety will be forced to spend the rest of their sentence behind bars, ministers say.

The legislation will cover offenders sentenced for offences such as training for terrorism, membership of a proscribed organisation and the dissemination of terrorist publications.

It will end the current system of automatic halfway release for those who are handed standard determinate sentences, instead requiring them to spend a minimum of two-thirds of their term in prison.

Downing Street hopes to speed the legislation through parliament and pass it into law by the end of the month.

It comes in the wake of the Streatham terror attack in south London earlier this month.

Sudesh Amman, 20, stabbed two people a week after being released halfway through his sentence for spreading extremist material.

Usman Khan, who killed two people in the London Bridge attack last year, was also released early.

The government wants to pass the bill by 27 February – the day before the next terrorist is expected to be freed under the current system.

Sunderland shopkeeper Mohammed Zahir Khan is due to be released on 28 February, it is understood.

He was imprisoned for four-and-a-half years in 2018 for sharing messages and material on social media supportive of Islamic State.

Around five other terrorists are expected to be released in March unless the new legislation is enacted.

Lawyers have warned the government that the legislation could be subjected to legal challenges from those already in prison who were sentenced under the current rules.

Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights forbids “a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the criminal offence was committed”.

But speaking in the Commons earlier, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland dismissed the prospect of the law being successfully challenged in the courts.

“I’m not going to anticipate litigation in domestic courts or indeed in Strasbourg,” he said.

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“But I will say this now and I will repeat it for the benefit of the record that it is my firm view that this Bill does not engage the provisions of Article 7 of the European Convention because it relates to the way in which the sentence is administered not a change in the nature of penalty itself.”

Former prime minister Theresa May said the government was right to be tackling the issue of automatic early release, but said rehabilitating offenders was “so important”.

“We will never deal with this issue of terrorism until we deal with the ideology that drives it,” she said.

Mrs May called for the government to take “extra efforts to find new paths to ensure that we can turn people away from the extremism and the terrorism that takes other people’s lives”.

(c) Sky News 2020: More than 160 terrorists released early in seven years, MPs told