Legal loophole that allowed Anjem Choudary to leave jail early will be closed, minister says
The legal loophole that allowed Anjem Choudary to walk free from jail just halfway through his sentence will be closed, Ben Wallace, the security minister, has said.
The Home Office will ensure that jihadists convicted of "inviting" support for terrorist groups such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) will no longer be eligible for such an early release, he promised.
However, there were warnings on Sunday night that the announcement was too little too late.
Mr Choudary, the notorious Islamist hate preacher, was released on Friday after serving just half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.
He is subjected to strict bail conditions which will lapse when his licence period ends in two-and-a-half years' time, leaving him a free man.
Had the loophole been closed earlier, Choudary would likely have been taken “out of action” for up to 15 years with an extended licence period, experts said.
Failure to do so was described as “catastrophic”.
Nikita Malik, director of the Henry Jackson Society’s Centre on Radicalisation and Terrorism told the Telegraph: “It’s welcome that the Government is acting now but the horse has already bolted. The Government should have closed this loophole years ago - if they had, Choudary would still have years on his sentence to serve.
“Terrorism is just as serious as violent or sexual offending and should have been treated as such”
When Mr Justice Holroyde sentenced Choudary in September 2016, he said: “You show no remorse at all for anything you have said or done, and I have no doubt you will continue to communicate your message whenever you can.”
Yet he said he had no power to impose an extended sentence.
Bringing the offence of inviting support for terrorist groups within the scope of the Extended Determinate Sentence programme, would allow a "dangerous" offender to be kept inside jail beyond the halfway point of his tariff.
Choudary would have had to convince the parole board he was a reformed character and taken part in all the relevant prison training courses even to be considered for early release.
The 51-year-old father-of-five, was spotted smiling yesterday (SUN) morning, his electronic tag visible around his right ankle, as he stepped out of a bail hostel in north London.
It is feared he has no intention of giving up his support for Isil.
It was last week claimed that he had refused to engage in deradicalisation programmes in jail.
And in a leaked 2014 recording, released by the Sun on Sunday, Choudary revealed he would continue supporting jihadism and said it was “the duty of every Muslim to give their allegiance” to IS.
Professor Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University's Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said he could not understand the logic of allowing someone like Choudary, who had expressed no contrition, to be freed.
“He is a clear and present danger. I don't think the government has got the focus on these surgical issues of national security or the focus to find the time to correct their own mistakes,” he said.
“I don’t have much confidence that Mr Wallace, for all his strengths, can move this great hulking container ship of parliament at the moment.
“Unfortunately, the shire horse of jihadism has bolted.”
