A convicted terrorist is released from prison onto the streets of Britain every week, government figures show, as next month sees the release of convicted hate preacher and Islamic State recruiter Anjem Choudary.
Between March 2017 and March 2018, 46 convicts imprisoned for terror offences were released from jail, with at least 22 of Choudary’s supporters being released since the September 11th, 2001, terror attacks, with another five up for parole in the next year, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Choudary, imprisoned in August 2016 after being convicted of encouraging Muslims to support Islamic State in a series of YouTube videos, was the leader of the terror group al-Muhajiroun, now proscribed in the United Kingdom.
The convicted hate preacher is said to be linked to 15 terror plots dating back 20 years, and is believed to be linked to hundreds of jihadists who travelled to Syria to fight with Islamist groups.
Acolytes of and those with connections to Choudary and his banned terror group have committed terror attacks in the UK, including the ringleader of the June 2017 London Bridge vehicular attack Khuram Butt. Butt was also reported to have attended a protest in support of the murderers of Fusilier Lee Rigby, organised by Choudary.
The off-duty soldier was mown down with a car near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, London, on May 22nd, 2013. Islamist terrorists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale then disembarked from the vehicle and attacked Rigby with knives, killing him and nearly severing his head.
Both Adebolajo and Adebowale were followers of Choudary, who at the protest attended by Butt, days after the death of Rigby, described Adebolajo as a “nice man”, asserting that the terrorist was “a practising Muslim and a family man” who he was “proud of”.
Former counter-terrorism detective David Videcette, who investigated the July 7th, 2005, terror attacks on London’s public transport, said: “Every plot I ever researched – someone in it was linked to Choudary.”
Serving less than half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence, because evidence obtained against him was only sufficient for a short sentence, prisons minister Rory Stewart said Choudary is a “deeply pernicious, destabilising influence” who is beyond reform.
Mr Stewart added that MI5 and police will “watch [him] like a hawk” once he is released in attempts to stop him inciting further attacks.
However, Chris Phillips, former chief of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, told the Sunday Telegraph: “These people are bloody dangerous.
“If you’re going to release hardened terrorists onto the streets then you have to expect chaos.
“How on earth can police and security services be expected to manage all this with the resources they’ve got?”
Last year, the government revealed that there were 23,000 individuals on the terror watch list — not 3,000 as previously advised, confessing that the 3,000 figure relates to those on a watch list with an additional 20,000 considered people of concern.