Judge WARNED in 2012 that London Bridge attacker should NOT be released from prison early
The violent extremist who killed two people in a terror attack in London on Friday had previously been described by a judge as a “serious jihadi” who should not be eligible for early release from prison.
Usman Khan was one of nine men jailed in February 2012 for plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange and building a terrorist training camp.
Khan was sentenced to serve a minimum of eight years in prison and, when handing down the sentence, UK High Court judge Alan Wilkie said that the convicted terrorist should not be released from jail early.
In the aftermath of Friday’s attack, the London Metropolitan Police confirmed that the murderer was released on license in December 2018, less than 11 months before he killed two people in the stabbing spree.
During the 2012 sentencing Justice Wilkie singled out Khan and two of his co-conspirators as “more serious jihadis than the others” in the case.
“They were working to a long term agenda, no less deadly in its potential than the potential for damage and injury the subject of the short term intentions of the others. They were intent on obtaining training for themselves and others whom they would recruit and, as such, were working to a more ambitious and more serious jihadist agenda,” the judge said in his sentencing remarks.
In my judgment, these offenders would remain, even after a lengthy term of imprisonment, of such a significant risk that the public could not be adequately protected by their being managed on licence in the community, subject to conditions, by reference to a preordained release date.
“The safety of the public in respect of these offenders can only adequately be protected if their release on licence is decided upon, at the earliest, at the conclusion of the minimum term which I fix today,” he added, while fixing a terrorism notification period of 30 years.
The judge’s prescient comments were reported by the BBC at the time and have resurfaced on social media following Khan’s murderous rampage on Friday.
Speaking at the scene of the deadly attack on Saturday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that people convicted of terrorism offences should not be allowed out of prison early.
“I think that the practice of automatic, early release where you cut a sentence in half and let really serious, violent offenders out early simply isn’t working, and you’ve some very good evidence of how that isn’t working, I am afraid, with this case,” Johnson said.
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