Prisoners' Release: Terrorism

(asked on 8th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2014, Official Report, column 851W, on prisoners' release: terrorism, what offences were committed by those released in those years; and what the length of sentence (a) awarded by the court and (b) served in prison was by each offender.


Answered by
Andrew Selous Portrait
Andrew Selous
Second Church Estates Commissioner
This question was answered on 19th November 2014

Further to the answer provided on 21 July 2014 [204644], the table below provides the offence and sentence details relating to those terrorist offenders who were charged with committing further offences following release from custody whilst subject to statutory supervision on licence.

Date

Offence

Sentence awarded by the court

Length of sentence served in prison

2012

Deception – dishonestly obtaining a credit card.

9 November 2012: sentenced to 4 months’ imprisonment – to be served concurrently with current sentence.

Served 2 months imprisonment for this offence, but remained in custody, having been recalled, until 9 May 2013. Sentence Expiry Date for substantive terrorist offence 11 September 2016.

2012

Fraud - making a false statement to obtain motor insurance.

At court, entered a not guilty plea. The case was eventually dismissed on the basis of a lack of evidence.

Having been charged with a further offence, he was recalled to custody. He was re-released on 29 November 2012. Sentence expiry date for substantive terrorist offence 3 November 2017.

2013

Arrested in Possession of a false instrument - false passport.

The offence was committed in November 2013. He was sentenced on 25 April 2014 to 28 months’ imprisonment.

The custodial element of this sentence will be completed in November 2014, taking into account time spent on remand. However, he remains subject to recall, and it will then be a matter for the independent Parole Board to consider if and when it will direct the re-release of the offender. Sentence expiry date for substantive terrorist offence 20 February 2016.

2013

Make a false statement to obtain motor insurance.

Fined £110, Court costs £85.

No sentence of imprisonment. Sentence expiry date for substantive terrorist offence 18 July 2014

In the previous answer [204644], there was additionally some information provided on one offender who had completed a sentence for a terrorist offence in 2010 but was then convicted of a further terrorist offence. The details are that he was originally sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment on 18 July 2007, reduced to 4 years on appeal, for soliciting murder (during a rally against the cartoons satirising the prophet Mohammed in February 2006). He was released on 12 December 2008, on his conditional release date, and he was on licence until his sentence expiry date 12 October 2010.

He was then sentenced to a total of 12 months’ imprisonment on 18 September 2012 for three offences of possessing a document or information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. His sentence expiry date was 7 May 2013.

In October 2013, the Secretary of State announced that criminals convicted of terrorism offences will no longer be automatically released at the halfway point of their prison sentence. They will only be released before the end of their custodial term under strict conditions and at the discretion of the Parole Board, who must be satisfied that an offender’s risk has been addressed and can be managed in the community before they will allow release.

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