Streatham terror attack – live: ‘My son was radicalised in prison’, attacker’s mother says amid calls to end automatic release of terrorists
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The Isis supporter who stabbed two people in a terror attack on a south London high street has been named as 20-year-old Sudesh Amman.
Scotland Yard confirmed Amman was under surveillance at the time of the Streatham attack, having only been released from prison days ago after being jailed in 2018 for disseminating terrorist material and collecting information useful for terror attacks.
Counterterror police have raided a probation hostel in London and a Hertfordshire property but no arrests have yet been made, while mayor Sadiq Khan expressed anger at Boris Johnson’s government over its failure to prevent the “foreseeable and preventable” attack.
The male victim who was stabbed in the attack is no longer in a life-threatening condition, while one woman, in her fifties, was discharged from hospital late on Sunday. Another woman, in her twenties, is believed to have been struck by shattered glass and was receiving treatment, police said.
His mother, Haleema Faraz Khan, told Sky News that he was a “nice, polite boy” and that he had become more religious in prison.
Ms Khan said she believed her son had come radicalised while in HMP Belmarsh, where concerns have previously been raised over Islamist extremism and networking between terrorist prisoners.
The justice minister is expected to announce “fundamental changes” to how the UK imprisons convicted terrorists on Monday evening, but it was not immediately clear how the measures would go beyond the 2019 Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act – which ended automatic early release for a host of terror offences.
Number 10 source decries 'shocking influence of lawyers on policy'
"People are being let out who are known to be extremely dangerous because of terrible decisions made over past 15 years and the shocking influence of lawyers on policy, Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby reports a "Number 10 source" as claiming.
In reference to special adviser Dominic Cummings, the "Secret Barrister" responds: "Lawyers do not make laws. Dom's boss and his mates make the laws."
As part of a longer thread about the myths surrounding the UK's ability to impose "indeterminate" sentences, human rights barrister Adam Wagner says funding cuts are "the elephant in the room".
Father of London Bridge attack victim Jack Merritt criticises Tory cuts
David Merritt says longer sentencing alone would merely be "kicking the can down the road, allowing prisoners to radicalise each other and build greater resentment".
He wrote of his son Jack in The Guardian in December: "Jack devoted his energy to the purpose of Learning Together: a pioneering programme to bring students from university and prisons together to share their unique perspectives on justice.
"He would be seething at his death, and his life, being used to perpetuate an agenda of hate that he gave his everything fighting against. We should never forget that. What Jack would want from this is for all of us to walk through the door he has booted down, in his black Doc Martens."
Mr Merritt later accused Boris Johnson of making "political capital" from his son's death, as the Conservatives vowed to get tougher on prison sentences.
Former terror law watchdog calls for reintroduction of controversial form of house arrest
Lord Carlile, the UK's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation from 2001 to 2011 has urged the government to reintroduce controversial restrictions which place terrorists under a form of house arrest.
He said control orders would be an "effective and proportionate response" to tackle the "immediate problem" of offenders being automatically released from prison after serving half their sentence.
Despite ministers' tough talk on ending automatic early release, the 2019 Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act actually did so for a host of terror offences, but the law only applies to sentences passed after that date.
"To deal with the immediate problem, [the government] should re-introduce control orders as we had pre-2011," Lord Carlile told the PA news agency. "They worked well and withstood legal challenge, and would be an effective and proportionate response."
Control orders were introduced under 2005 anti-terrorism legislation, putting terror suspects under close supervision, with restrictions on who they could meet and where they could go.
They were repealed and replaced by measures known as TPIMS (Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures) in 2011.
The government said TPIMS was a less intrusive system which addressed concerns about civil liberties with time limits and a higher test to be met for one to be brought into force.
‘I would encourage everybody not to be afraid,’ says Streatham MP
"It’s a sad and scary situation," Bell Ribeiro-Addy told The Guardian's Damien Gayle. "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."
17-yaer-old Sunya Gogeer was in a nearby library at the time of the attack, and described her experience.
Sudesh Amman arrested for planning terror attacks in 2018 but charged with less serious offences
Police initially arrested Amman on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism – an offence that can carry a life sentence – but charged him with less serious crimes on the advice of prosecutors, The Independent's home affairs and security correspondent Lizzie Dearden reports.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) we did not charge with this offence.”
If Amman had been convicted of preparing a terrorist act, rather than the propaganda offences, he would have received a longer “extended determinate sentence” forcing him to undergo a Parole Board assessment before being released.
But he was freed automatically after serving half of his term in prison last week, and sent to a probation hostel in London under licence conditions.
The 2019 Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act ended automatic early release for a host of terror offences, subjecting more terrorist offenders to extended determinate sentences, where they serve two thirds of their sentence in prison and are assessed by the Parole Board before they can be released.
But the law only applied to sentences passed after April 2019 and Sudesh Amman had been jailed earlier.
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