LONDON, Dec 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the security services were stepping up monitoring of convicted terrorists released early from prison, as the London Bridge attack became embroiled in the election campaign.
The prime minister revealed around 74 people with terrorist convictions had been released early from prison in a similar way to Usman Kan, who left jail last December and went on to stab two people to death in Friday’s rampage.
“They are being properly invigilated to make sure there is no threat,”
Johnson said in an interview.
“We’ve taken a lot of action as you can imagine in the last 48 hours,” he
said, adding he would not provide “operation details”.
Khan, 28, was shot dead while wearing a fake explosives vest by police on
London Bridge after a stabbing spree that also injured three people launched at a nearby prisoner rehabilitation event he was attending.
The Daesh group has released a statement claiming responsibility for the attack.
Khan, a British national, had been conditionally released from jail last December under so-called licensing conditions after serving around half of his jail term.
Khan has become a contentious political issue ahead of Britain’s December
12 election, with Johnson blaming the previous Labour government for changing the law in 2008 to allow for the early release of prisoners.
The Tory leader has vowed that if he reclaims power this month he will end
early release for terrorist offences and introduce minimum 14-year sentences, with some convicted never to be released.
The proposals were not in the Conservatives’ formal manifesto released last
Sunday.
Johnson penned an article setting out the new stance in The Mail on Sunday
newspaper, under the headline: “Give me a majority and I’ll keep you safe
from terror”.
Critics have hit out fiercely at him for appearing to politicise Friday’s
attack — including the father of the first named victim.
David Merritt confirmed on Twitter the death of his son Jack Merritt, a
course coordinator at the Cambridge University’s criminology institute which was hosting the event targeted by Khan.
He described his 25-year-old son as “a beautiful spirit who always took the
side of the underdog”, in a series of messages that also responded to the
political furor around the attack.
“We don’t need knee-jerk reactions,” Merritt wrote.
“It’s not lenient policies that are to blame, it’s the destruction of the
probation service that is supposed to monitor and supervise prisoners after
release, & rehabilitation services,” he added.
“Since 2010 these service(s) have been cut to the bone. We are all less
safe as a result.”
Meanwhile, Johnson’s political opponents noted his Conservative Party has
been in power for nearly a decade but had chosen not to tighten the laws
around terrorism sentencing.
They have also argued changes to sentencing laws introduced in the 1990s
under the Conservatives also contributed to the early release system.
“I think there has to be an examination of how our prison services work and crucially what happens to them on release from prison,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said.
He would not commit to ending early release in all scenarios for terrorism
offences.
“I think it depends on the circumstances and it depends on the sentence but
crucially depends on what they’ve done in prison,” Corbyn said. — NNN-AGENCIES