Boris Johnson claims rehabilitation of Islamist terrorists ‘rarely works’ and pledges to end early release
- Sudesh Amman freed from jail and on police watchlist
- Questions for investigators over surveillance of attacker
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Here is video of Boris Johnson’s comments from this morning about concerns regarding automatic early release for people convicted of terrorism offences.
"What was he doing out on automatic early release?"
Speaking about the Streatham attacker Sudesh Amman, Boris Johnson says the government is "bringing forward legislation to stop the system of automatic early release". pic.twitter.com/VUQ4uflY0Z
Police said overnight they had raided two residential addresses in connection with the attack, in Bishop’s Stortford and London respectively.
A resident who witnessed the raid at the property on Burley Road in Bishop’s Stortford. Hertfordshire, described the incident as “quite distressing”. She said:
It’s not nice to see police raiding a house. They [the police] didn’t knock the door down, it was just a general raid. Neighbours came out, everyone was concerned.
I think the rest of the family are still in the house. At the end of the day the parents are really really nice people - they are very religious.
Bell Ribeiro Addy, the new MP for Streatham, was at the cordon on Streatham High Road on Monday morning. On Sunday she was in the area for the immediate aftermath of the attack appealing for calm and unity.
It’s a really sad and scary situation. As someone who’s lived here all my life I wouldn’t think that something like this would happen, but I would encourage everyone not to be afraid. It’s an isolated incident, everything is under control and also we shouldn’t let those fears and that division divide us as a community.
The justice secretary, Robert Buckland, will this afternoon outline the government’s response to yesterday’s incident. Boris Johnson gave an indication earlier (see 11.48am) of what this might mean, ending automatic early release for convicted terrorists, which would, unusually, include existing prisoners.
No UQs but three major oral statements from 3:30pm:
1. Global Britain - @DominicRaab
2. Update on Wuhan Coronavirus - @MattHancock
3. Govt response to Streatham incident - @RobertBuckland
Islamic State (Isis) have claimed responsibility for the attack in Streatham yesterday. This should be treated with a healthy dose of scepticism as Isis has a tendency to claim almost all attacks fuelled by an extremist Islamic ideology, whether they were involved or not.
What is beyond doubt is that Suddesh Amman has expressed support for Isis in the past, as evidenced when he was convicted of terrorist offences in 2018. So he was clearly influenced by their ideology, whether or not he had any direct contact with them or they had any part in planning his actions.
#BREAKING IS claims #Streatham, south London attacker one of its fighters: propaganda arm pic.twitter.com/wF8abIDnaR
Haleema Faraz Khan also said her son became more religious in prison (Belmarsh is home to a number of terrorism convicts as Britain’s most secure prison). She said she did not know why he had become more religious.
Khan was described as being in tears. She said her son wanted to study biomedical science.
I spoke to him on the phone on Sunday. He said: ‘Mum, I want some biryani … your mutton biryani.’
He became more religious inside prison, that’s where I think he became radicalised. He was watching and listening to things online, which brainwashed him.
The mother of the Streatham attacker, Sudesh Amman, has told Sky News he was a “nice, polite boy” and that she spoke to him only hours before the attack.
Haleema Faraz Khan said she had visited her son at a bail hostel on Thursday and he called her hours before the attack.
The prime minister paid tribute to the “speedy and brave” response by the police, but said:
The question that everybody has about the individual concerned is what was he doing out on automatic release and also why was there no system of scrutiny, no parole system to check whether he was really a suitable candidate for automatic early release. That is a very complex legal system.
We do think it’s time to tackle action to ensure that people, irrespective of the law we are bringing in, people in the current stream do not qualify automatically for early release, people convicted of terrorist act offences.
After a speech on EU-UK trade in Greenwich, south-east London, Boris Johnson acknowledged the concern about Sudesh Amman’s release from prison.
He said rehabilitation very rarely works:
The problems we have with re-educating and reclaiming and rehabilitating people who succumb to Islamism, it’s very very hard and very tough and it can happen but the instances of success are really very few and we need to be frank about that and we need to think about how we handle that in our criminal justice system.
The BBC’s political editor says the government is considering emergency legislation in response to the second attack by a convicted terrorist in little over two months.
Robert Buckland expected to make a statement in Commons later after Streatham attack - Whitehall source suggests emergency legislation is being considered
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has condemned yesterday’s attack by Isis-inspired Sudesh Amman.
Harun Khan, the MCB secretary general, said:
Our thoughts are with the victims of the incident in Streatham, and our solidarity is with the people of that area. Streatham is a vibrant community where Muslims find common cause with fellow residents on a range of issues. Only recently, the people of Streatham came together to speak out against the vandalism against a local mosque.
We must continue to celebrate this strong community spirit, whilst also remaining vigilant. We encourage everyone to report any hate crime and suspicious activity to the police to help keep our communities safe.
One of the properties being searched this morning by police is a Streatham bail hostel where Sudesh Amman had been living since his release from prison.
The manager of the hostel told PA Media he had last seen Amman on Friday. “He didn’t speak much,” the manager – who did not want to be named – said. “I didn’t have much to do with him. I don’t really get involved with these guys.”
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Streatham, has been at the scene of the attack. She said: “The perpetrator didn’t serve his full sentence, which is questionable – what is more questionable is why he needed to be under surveillance. If someone needs to be under surveillance it brings the question on why they were released in the first place.”
“If you need to be under surveillance immediately [after leaving prison], it begs the question why you were released in the first place”
Labour’s Streatham MP, @BellRibeiroAddy, reacts to the attackhttps://t.co/HdsnpirIF5#VictoriaLIVEpic.twitter.com/5W50xqUYM1
Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, has said, as he did after November’s London Bridge attack, which was – like the Streatham attack – carried out by a convicted terrorist, that he warned Boris Johnson four years ago about the threat posed by such individuals on release. He said he told the prime minister that proper de-radicalisation programmes were needed with mentoring, to which the response was that “that costs money”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that longer sentences were not the answer.
We could have delayed this inevitable crime by a few months if we’d given him that [a longer sentence] but there is a real problem with de-radicalisation and disengagement programmes. They have been largely underfunded, they are poorly executed.
Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Sir Lanka and Denmark have world-renowned evaluated de-radicalisation programmes, properly resourced, which are making a significant difference.
My thoughts with those harmed in #Streatham& with thanks to our police & security services for running towards danger
I hate to remind people that the time bomb that releasing still radicalised terrorists was brought to the PMs personal attention 4 yrs ago https://t.co/lOsLktILSKpic.twitter.com/s7FkqZNiwO
Hello, this is Haroon Siddique taking over the liveblog from Jessica.
A witness told Sky News he thought at the time that the incident was probably gang-related.
"I just saw a fight, but that's kind of normal around here."
A witness to the terror attack in Streatham, south London told Sky News he thought it was just a regular fight until he heard a "shout" and everyone ran.
Latest here: https://t.co/XHvrvIOw6jpic.twitter.com/qwdl6zrMxB
George Donedo was stood at the cordon in Streatham on Monday morning speaking to reporters. “I did actually witness the shooting myself,” he said.
Donedo had been due to take his daughter to the library that afternoon to return books, but she said she didn’t want to go so he went alone.
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London Ambulance Service has denied reports it took them 30 minutes to arrive on the scene of the terror attack in Streatham yesterday.
We have heard reports that it took 30 minutes for our medics to arrive at yesterday’s incident in Streatham
We can confirm that our medics arrived in 4 minutes, and were initially directed to a rendezvous point until the police confirmed it was safe for them to approach patients pic.twitter.com/dxXPRdX5r6
I had to stay with someone who’d just been #stabbed in #Streatham for 30 minutes before a single ambulance arrived.
I’m just over 1 mile from a hospital - I’m not having a go at anyone, but that’s not right
I just hope he made it
Ian Acheson, who led an independent review in 2016 of Islamist extremism in prisons, probation and youth justice, said some people are so dangerous they might need to be kept in prison “indefinitely”.
He told the BBC’s Today programme: “We are going to have to accept that we have to be much more sceptical and robust about dealing with the risk of harm.
The former head of UK counterterrorism policing, Sir Mark Rowley, said there was a case for giving terrorists indeterminate prison sentences. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said effective rehabilitation and de-radicalisation support was also crucial.
“If someone is clearly driven by an ideology and they believe that slaughtering other people is a sort of God-given purpose, then I can see a case for that,” said Rowley.
Several hundred metres of Streatham High Road remains cordoned off. The road, normally one of south London’s busiest commuter routes, is quiet, with pedestrians walking via side streets to get to train stations.
A wide cordon remains in place on Streatham High Road this morning while police continue to investigate and clear up after the attack yesterday pic.twitter.com/VYnyqNppRT
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said he is angry about the terror attack in Streatham, which he said, like the London Bridge attack in November, was “preventable and foreseeable”.
“Why was he allowed to be released if the authorities knew he was going to be a danger?”, he told BBC News. “I want to be reassured that the authorities have the resources and support they need to make sure we’re kept safe.”
Rishi Sunak, the chief secretary to the Treasury, declined to give any details of what new measures the government would put in place in the wake of the attack during a broadcast round on Monday, noting that Boris Johnson has already promised a new counter-terror bill.
“Today he will outline some more, and in regard to all of this, people should be under no illusion about our determination to keep everybody safe,” Sunak told BBC1’s Breakfast.
"Until the law is changed obviously we have to work with the laws that we have."
Cabinet Minister @RishiSunak admits the laws which enabled #Streatham attacker Sudesh Amman to be released early from his sentence for terror offences cannot be changed immediately. #KayBurleypic.twitter.com/Pw8zWjePON
Boris Johnson has said he will announce “further plans for fundamental changes” to the system for dealing with convicted terrorists today.
Following the London Bridge terror attack in November last year, when former inmate Usman Khan stabbed two people to death at Fishmonger’s Hall, the government said it would move to end automatic early release for serious offenders.
Welcome to live coverage of the aftermath of yesterday’s terror incident in Streatham, south London, where a man was shot dead by police after he stabbed two people.
The attacker was named as Sudesh Amman, who left prison only days ago and had previously been noted by police as having a “fascination with dying in the name of terrorism”.
Related: Streatham attacker freed from jail days ago after terror conviction
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