UK police search homes in terror stabbing probe

LONDON: British police were searching two homes on Monday after shooting dead an extremist who knifed two people in London in an attack claimed by the IS group, as the government vowed a review of the system for the early release of convicted terrorists. Sudesh Amman, 20, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, was shot on a busy shopping street in south London on Sunday. IS’s propaganda arm called Amman “an IS fighter and he carried out the attack in response to a call to target nationals” of countries belonging to the global coalition fighting it. Amman was recently freed early from prison after serving part of his sentence for a string of terror offences — namely the possession and distribution of terrorist documents. Counter-terror officers were conducting searches at one address in south London and one in Bishop’s Stortford, north of the capital near London Stansted Airport. Amman had been arrested in London in May 2018 on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. He was jailed for three years and four months in December 2018 for 13 separate offences. As part of what police said was a “proactive counter-terrorism surveillance operation”, armed officers were following him on foot following his release. Sunday’s incident in the Streatham district came just over two months after a similar incident when armed police shot dead a convicted terrorist on early release near London Bridge in the heart of the city. He had stabbed two people to death after attending a prisoner rehabilitation conference. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said plans would be announced later on Monday to change the system on handling the release of convicted terrorists. He had previously promised such changes following the London Bridge attack. “What was he (Amman) doing out on automatic early release and why was there no system of scrutiny, no parole system to check whether he was really a suitable candidate?” he told reporters. “Looking at the problems we have with re-educating and reclaiming and rehabilitating people — and it can happen that the instances of success are really very few. “My anxiety is that we do not want to get back to a system where you have a lot of very, very, laborious surveillance by our hard-pushed security services... when a custodial version might be better.” London Mayor Sadiq Khan meanwhile told ITV television he was “angry” that the government had not already acted to change the law. The Labour party politician said there were “roughly” more than 70 people in London who have been convicted of a terrorist offence, served time in prison and have been released. — AFP