Unrepentant terrorists are roaming Britain’s streets

Yet again, the British state is failing to keep its citizens safe. This week, convicted terrorist Abdalraouf Abdallah – who was close friends with the Manchester Arena bomber – was freed from prison. This is despite the fact that, just a few months ago, he was deemed too dangerous for release.

In September, the Parole Board decided against allowing Abdallah to be released from prison early. According to the board, he was still considered a ‘high risk of serious harm to the public’, and it was believed he had a ‘high propensity to radicalise others’. Indeed, last year’s inquiry into the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing concluded that Abdallah played a significant role in radicalising the perpetrator, Salman Abedi. Abdallah was a childhood friend of Abedi and Abedi visited Abdallah while he was in prison. Abedi then went on to commit the attack that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert. The youngest victim was just eight years old. As of this week, however, Abdallah has reached the end of his sentence and is allowed to walk free.

Abdallah – a British-Libyan dual national – was jailed for five-and-a-half years back in 2016 for assisting others to join Islamic State militants in Syria. From his home in Manchester, he had set up a ‘hub’ of communication for would-be jihadists – including his brother, Mohammed, who was imprisoned for 10 years in 2017. According to the prosecution at his trial, Abdallah was ‘directing operations on a daily basis’, using contacts in Belgium, Jordan and Syria. Abdallah himself had gone to fight in the Libyan civil war in 2011, during which he was injured and paralysed from the waist down.

During his time in jail, Abdallah participated in counter-extremist rehabilitation courses. But his probation officer, prison officer and psychologist still did not support his early release. Examinations concluded that he represented a ‘high risk’ to the public, and that he continued to ‘show levels of engagement with extremism and intent to commit terrorist-related offences’.

How is it that a convicted terrorist, who is highly likely to offend again, is now allowed to walk free? This is an Islamist extremist who helped aspiring jihadists to travel to Syria to join ISIS – a genocidal and barbaric terrorist organisation that has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in the UK. And while there is no evidence that Abdallah knew that Abedi was planning to carry out the Manchester bombing, he certainly contributed to radicalising him. Abedi was, let’s not forget, the perpetrator of the deadliest terror attack carried out on British soil since the 7/7 London bombings.

Clearly, something is very wrong with our justice system if people like Abdallah are free to roam the streets. There have been attempts to give terror-related sentencing and monitoring a ‘shake-up’, such as the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021, which brought in longer jail terms for convicted terrorists. Evidently, the system still isn’t tough enough. Experts have admitted that the attempts to rehabilitate Abdallah have failed. If experienced psychologists and senior members of the prison and probation services decide that a prisoner convicted of terror offences has not been de-radicalised and remains a threat, the state’s duty should be to keep the public safe. There must be mechanisms in place to extend sentences where necessary.

As it stands, the British criminal-justice system is failing to prioritise the safety and security of law-abiding Brits – especially when it comes to the threat of Islamist extremism, which very much remains the country’s principal terror threat. The state must get much tougher on terrorism, before more innocent people get hurt.

Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, which is available to order on Amazon.