Boris Johnson: Early release of terrorists ‘not working’ in 2019

Al-Qaeda plotter Adel Abdel-Bary, 60, was freed early on compassionate grounds after convincing authorities he was a high coronavirus risk because of his obesity and asthma. He flew back to the UK this week to be reunited with wife Ragaa, 59, who lives in a council flat in Maida Vale, northwest London.

The convicted terrorist, who was known as bin Laden’s Europe spokesman when he operated al-Qaeda’s “media relations office” from rented premises in London’s Kilburn Lane, was jailed for 25 years for his role in the 1998 terror attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and wounded more than 5,000.

UK security sources said MI5 and police carried out an immediate risk assessment of Abdel-Bary when he touched down on British soil on Thursday.

The father-of-six is entitled to live in Britain after being granted asylum in 1997.

The law states he cannot be sent back to Egypt because he could be at risk of death or torture in his home country, which he fled for the UK in 1991 amid claims of torture by the authorities in Cairo.

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UK security sources said Abdel-Bary would be a priority and police and MI5 could place him under surveillance if they received intelligence to suggest he was communicating with old contacts or had any sinister intentions.

But they warned the powers to monitor him were limited by law because he has served his sentence.

Abdel-Bary was extradited to the US in 2012 and jailed for 25 years after admitting his role in the al-Qaeda truck bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

He pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiring to kill Americans and to charges related to making threats. He was originally charged with 285 offences but admitted just three, including threatening to kill by means of explosives and conspiracy to murder US citizens abroad.

Abdel-Bary had 16 years taken off due to the time he had spent on remand in London ahead of his extradition.

During his trial in the US, prosecutors said Abdel-Bary had been a trusted senior member of the London cell of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a group led by Ayman al-Zawahiri that merged with bin Laden’s bloodthirsty al-Qaeda terror network.

They said after the 1998 bombings he sent faxes to media outlets claiming responsibility for the atrocities and warning of future attacks.

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He was freed in October after his lawyers told a New York court his morbid obesity was an “extraordinary and compelling” reason for mercy and a judge agreed. Prison records revealed he weighs more than 16st and suffers from asthma.

His lawyers told the judge his release would begin the process of returning to his family in London.

They said: “He will never walk the streets of any town or city in the United States.”

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