{"id":52691,"date":"2019-12-01T11:15:59","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T03:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=52691"},"modified":"2019-12-01T11:16:01","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T03:16:01","slug":"uk-prime-minister-johnson-vows-to-act-as-convicted-terrorist-named-in-london-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=52691","title":{"rendered":"UK: Prime Minister Johnson vows to act as convicted terrorist named in London attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LONDON, Dec 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed
to review Britain\u2019s sentencing system after a convicted terrorist
released early from prison stabbed two people to death and wounded three in a London Bridge attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the public were hailed as heroes for preventing even greater
loss of life by tackling Usman Khan \u2014 one armed with a 1.5-metre narwhal tusk and another with a fire extinguisher \u2014 before police shot him
dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video footage of the confrontation showed Khan, 28, being challenged by a
man, reportedly a Polish chef, wielding the tusk \u2014 believed to have been
grabbed from the historic hall where the stabbings began \u2014 as another person sprayed him with the extinguisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan had been conditionally released from jail last December after serving
less than half of a 16-year prison sentence for terrorism, and was wearing a
fake explosive device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, the Daesh group released a statement claiming
responsibility for the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe person who carried out the London attack\u2026 was a fighter from the
Daesh, and did so in response to calls to target citizens of
coalition countries,\u201d Daesh said, referring to a multi-country alliance against the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident comes two years after Islamist extremists in a van ploughed
into pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking people at random with
knives in nearby Borough Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that occasion, eight people were killed and 48 wounded before the three
attackers, who were wearing fake suicide devices, were shot dead by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said five people had
been stabbed inside Fishmonger\u2019s Hall by London Bridge before members of the public pursued the attacker. The three survivors remain in hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basu added that Khan had been released under \u201can extensive list of licence
conditions\u201d with which he had previously been complying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police on Saturday searched two properties in Stoke-on-Trent, Khan\u2019s home
city, and Stafford in central England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest attack came less than two weeks before Britain\u2019s general
election, and thrust the issue of terrorism into the heart of the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson pledged to introduce minimum 14-year sentences for serious
terrorist offences, while some convicted might never be released, and to
scrap early release if he wins a majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely clear that we can\u2019t carry on with the failed approaches of
the past,\u201d said Johnson, who became leader of the Conservative Party \u2014 which has been in power since 2010 \u2014 in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also spoke to US President Donald Trump Saturday, who \u201cexpressed his
condolences\u201d over the attack, according to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared to raise doubts about the Tories\u2019 handling of the parole and wider justice system in light of the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to investigate fully the way all aspects of the criminal justice
system operate,\u201d he said, branding the London Bridge incident \u201ca complete
disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first victim of the attack was named as Jack Merritt, a course
coordinator at Cambridge University\u2019s criminology institute, according to
media reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The institute hosted a prisoner rehabilitation event at Fishmonger\u2019s Hall,
a historic building on the north side of the bridge. Khan attended the event
reportedly armed with two knives and the fake suicide vest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the confrontation moved from inside the hall to the pavement outside, a
throng of people could be seen in videos grappling with Khan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They reportedly included a convicted killer on day-release from prison and
other ex-offenders also attending the criminology gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A British Transport Police officer in a suit and tie who also intervened
was seen carrying a large knife away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we saw the worst of human kind, we saw the very best of human spirit
and London,\u201d Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said Saturday as she visited London Bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan, a British national, was handed an indeterminate sentence for the
protection of the public in 2012, with at least eight years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was part of an eight-man network inspired by Al-Qaeda who had plotted to bomb targets including the London Stock Exchange, and planned to take part in \u201cterrorist training\u201d in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his sentence was quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 2013 and he
received a new 21-year term, comprising a custodial sentence of 16 years and five years on conditional release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inmates are usually released half-way through this type of determinate
sentence \u2014 and time spent in custody before trial may have been taken into
account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Parole Board said it had no involvement in his release and that it
appeared to have happened automatically as required by law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said the cases of other convicted terrorists released early were
under urgent review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Justice is reportedly reviewing the licence conditions of
every convicted terrorist released from prison, which is understood to be
around 70 people. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON, Dec 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowedto review Britain\u2019s sentencing system after a convicted terroristreleased early from prison stabbed two people to death and wounded three in a London Bridge attack. Members of the public were hailed as heroes for preventing even greaterloss of life by tackling Usman Khan \u2014 one armed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52691"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}