By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-04-03 13:37:46 | Updated at 2025-04-04 08:11:28
18 hours ago
A terrorist linked to the 7/7 London bombings is set to be released from detention despite being deemed a "risk to national security".
Haroon Aswat, 50, is expected to return to his family home in Yorkshire in the "relatively near future", according to a High Court judge.
Aswat, a disciple of hate preacher Abu Hamza, was jailed in the US in 2015 after admitting to trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
Aswat was a close lieutenant to Abu Hamza, with whom he planned to create a terrorist training camp in Oregon in 1999.
Haroon Aswat is expected to return to his family home in Yorkshire in the "relatively near future"
PA
He spent time in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he met Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, who later carried out the 7/7 bombings that killed 52 people on London's public transport in July 2005.
In 2001, he was training in Afghanistan and met two of the July 7 bombers at an al-Qaeda safe house in Pakistan.
Authorities have been unable to fully assess Aswat due to his ongoing mental health treatment at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Bromley, south east London.
He has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a condition that can trigger unpredictable and aggressive behaviour.
When visited by British psychiatrist Dr Richard Taylor in 2022, Aswat declared: "I'm a terrorist."
Even when mentally stable, he continued to express violent, extremist Islamic ideology, according to Dr Taylor's assessment.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has expressed concerns that Aswat "could still be a real danger" to society.
"Those who pose a danger to the public should be taken off our streets," Philp told The Sun.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
In 2001, he was training in Afghanistan and met two of the July 7 bombers at an al-Qaeda safe house in Pakistan
REUTERS
Former Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Peter Clarke warned: "There have been far too many tragic cases in the UK where terrorists have been released and gone on to murder."
Aswat has threatened to kill Jews, Christians and certain groups of Muslims.
Justice Robert Jay acknowledged there was "evidence of an ongoing risk" but has issued a notification order upon Aswat's release.
"These were very serious offences and there is evidence of ongoing risk," the judge concluded.
He noted that risk assessment for terrorist offending is "always inherently uncertain" and in Aswat's case is "compounded by the mental instability of the defendant".
Despite these concerns, the judge ruled that Aswat's treatment has been "effective".
The notification order requires Aswat to register his address and bank details with police upon release.
He was a disciple of hate preacher Abu Hamza (pictured)
PA
He will not be under surveillance or required to wear a tag.
However, he must continually notify police about certain information, including his address, foreign travel plans and vehicle registration.
Detective Inspector Karen Bradley, a senior police officer involved in the case, concluded that Aswat remains a risk to national security.
Dr Taylor did not complete a full terrorist risk assessment but identified 15 of the 22 relevant factors in the government's extreme risk guidance.
He concluded there remains a risk of "Islamic violent extremism motivated targeted terrorist offending behaviour" from Aswat.
There is also concern about Aswat's potential to influence vulnerable individuals, as "when he is in an abnormal mental state his religious extremist rhetoric is amplified by mental illness."
Aswat served most of his sentence in America before returning to the UK in December 2022.
