London Evening Standard
London
Nearly 100 terrorist or extremist prisoners were freed from jail last year despite a record number of arrests by police trying to protect the country from attacks prompted by the conflict in Syria, official figures showed yesterday.
The statistics, published by the Home Office, show that 77 convicted offenders — including 12 who had served prison terms of four years or more — were released in the 12 month period to the end of March.
Another 20 suspects who had been held on remand or in immigration detention were also released. That pushed the total number freed to a new high of 97.
The figure, up 38 on the number released the previous year, will prompt concern about the burden being placed on police and MI5 in protecting the public from the potential risk posed by some of the freed convicts.
A total of 262 terrorist or extremist prisoners, including four lifers and 91 given terms of four years or more, have been freed in the past six years. The surge of releases has come despite terror arrests rising to a record as counter-terrorism officers battle to cope with the threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda — and a smaller, but still significant, rise in far-Right domestic extremism.
Yesterday’s figures show that there were 299 terrorism-related arrests in the year to the end of March, 31% up on the previous 12 months, and the highest since records began in September 2011.
The highest previous arrest tally was in the year following the July 7 London bombings when there were 284. Just over three-quarters of those arrested were Britons.
The rise was particularly stark among 18- to 20-year-olds. The numbers detained in this age group more than doubled to 43 from 20 in the previous year.
Eight under-18s were arrested, up two from the previous year — taking the total of juveniles arrested by terror police since 2009 to 43. Responding to yesterday figures, Security Minister John Hayes declined to comment on the potential risk posed by freed offenders, but insisted that the rising tally of arrests highlighted the need to give police and the intelligence agencies updated powers to monitor suspects’ communications.
He added: “We are determined to detect, disrupt and where possible prosecute all terrorist threats to the UK. These figures once again highlight the hard work carried out by the police, security service and Crown Prosecution Service to keep the public safe — and emphasise the scale of that challenge. At a time of very significant threat, it is vital they have the powers they need to protect the British public.
“The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act has bolstered our already considerable armoury of powers to disrupt the ability of people to travel abroad to fight, reduce the risks they pose on their return and combat the underlying ideology that feeds, supports and sanctions terrorism.
“Our forthcoming Investigatory Powers Bill will update our legislation to ensure the police and security service are equipped with up to date capabilities to protect us from those who would seek to do us harm.”
The new statistics also show that there are 192 terrorist or “domestic extremist/separatist” prisoners in jail in Britain.
Of these, 122 have been sentenced or are on pre-trial remand for terrorist offences. They include 100 Britons, five from other European countries, eight Asians, including five Bangladeshis, and seven Africans.
