Terrorist attack in south London – 2nd Feb

Days after being freed from jail, halfway through his jail term, Islamic militant goes on a violent terror attack in south London.

In November 2018 Sudesh Amman pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and the following month he was sentenced to more than three years in prison for possession of terrorist documents, disseminating terrorist publications, and promoting violent Islamist material.

On January 23^rd Amman, 20, had been released from prison, according to police. On the afternoon of Sunday, February 2^nd, he stole a knife from a shop and went on the rampage with a fake bomb strapped to his body. Amman was under surveillance at the time by armed police.

In the attack, which took place on Streatham High Road in the Streatham district in south London and lasted around 60 seconds, he stabbed two people with a 10-inch (25-cm) knife on a busy London street, before he was shot dead by police. A third person suffered minor injuries caused by shattered glass when police opened fire.

Two of the three injured have been discharged from hospital and the third was in a serious but stable condition, police said on Monday.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a stabbing attack in south London, without giving evidence, the group’s Amaq news agency said on Monday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had come “to the end of my patience” with the freeing of offenders before they had completed their sentences and without any scrutiny, and that he would act to stop the early release from prison of those convicted of terrorism offences.

 “We’re bringing forward legislation to stop the system of automatic early release but the difficulty is ... how to apply that retrospectively to the cohort of people who currently qualify,” Johnson said in a speech in London. “We do think it’s time to take action to ensure that people - irrespective of the law we’re bringing in - people in the current stream do not qualify automatically for early release.”

Britain has about 220 people in prison with terrorism convictions. Johnson said efforts to deradicalise and rehabilitate militants have had little success.

Justice minister Robert Buckland said that following Sunday’s attack, emergency legislation would be introduced to make immediate changes in dealing with people convicted of terrorism offences.

“Offenders will no longer be released early automatically and any release before the end of their sentence will be dependent on the risk assessment of the parole board,” he told parliament, adding the change would apply to serving prisoners.

The government had already promised tougher rules on terrorism after the attack near London Bridge in November where another former convict killed two people and wounded three more before police shot him dead, however they were still tied to EU law.

Now post-Brexit, Britain could temporarily separate itself from the European convention on human rights (ECHR) in order to push through emergency laws on sentencing for terrorists in the wake of the London Bridge and Streatham attacks.

Ministers want to ban convicted terrorists from being automatically released halfway through their prison term as soon as possible following Sunday’s incident in south London. It was the second case in just over two months of a freed prisoner committing further terror offences.

Sources (REUTERS; THE GUARDIAN).