Britain’s youngest terrorist has been deemed to be “suitable for release” by the Parole Board after serving just five years behind bars for plotting an attack on an Australian policeman.
The terrorist, known only as RXG, will be free to walk the streets without the public being aware of his identity, as he was granted life-long anonymity in 2019.
Announcing their decision to free the terrorist, the parole board said: “After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in detention, and the evidence presented at the hearings, the panel was satisfied that RXG was suitable for release,” the board said in a document detailing the decision.”
RXG was handed a “life” sentence with a minimum of five years in prison in 2015 after he pled guilty to inciting terrorism overseas. The terrorist pled guilty to trying to convince Australian 18-year-old Sevdet Besim to behead a policeman in Melbourne on Anzac Day, Australia’s equivalent to Remembrance Sunday or Veterans Day.
During his trial, it was revealed that RXG, had sent thousands of messages to Besim, urging him to get his “first taste of beheading” by attacking “a proper lonely person”.
The attack was foiled by British police, who discovered the plot and alerted Australian authorities. In a raid on his home, police found additional evidence of his terroristic intentions including an Isis flag, as well as a bomb-making guide and a combat knife.
In a written summary of the decision to release the terrorist, the Parole Board said that “no-one at the hearing considered there to be a need for further time” in prison as “all necessary work had been completed”.
The summary went on to claim that during his incarceration, RXG has “undertaken extensive specialist work in detention to address his offending behaviour, his understanding of Islam and to develop his level of maturity”.
As part of his release license conditions, RXG — who is now 20-years-old — will be required to live at a designated address, will have limits placed on where he can go and with whom he can meet, and be monitored by an electronic tag.
The ban on reporting RXG’s actual identity would have typically ended on his eighteenth birthday, but in what has been described as a “remarkable decision”, Judge Dame Victoria Sharp granted the terrorist lifelong anonymity, arguing that identifying him could result in “serious harm”.
A research fellow for the anti-extremism think tank the Henry Jackson Society, Dr Paul Stott, previously said of the reporting restrictions: “The public will rightly be disturbed that a young man considered dangerous enough to be jailed for life in 2015 may be considered for release.”
“The attack at London Bridge and Sudesh Amman’s in Streatham have proven that we can’t rule out released terrorists going on the rampage again,” he said, adding: “The interests and concerns of the general public must come first.”
During RXG’s sentencing, the presiding judge remarked: “I have no doubt a significant risk remains. I very much hope that the risk will have been removed in five years and he can be released.”
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