UK’s first terrorist Moinul Abedin to be freed despite the 100kg terror bomb plot

Britain’s first jihadi extremist Moinul Abedin could be released as early as November 2020 after spending nearly 20 years behind bars for terrorist offences.

Abedin was prosecuted under the 1883 Explosives Act after police discovered nearly 100kg of bomb-making material at a rented property in Birmingham.

He was jailed for 20 years at Birmingham Crown Court in 2002, but was released on licence in 2012 after serving less than half of his sentence.

The convicted terrorist quickly found himself back in jail, when cops hauled him back to prison in August 2012.

Officers had found Abedin used a laptop and wiped its memory, which was in breach of his licence conditions.

He spent three more years behind bars before he attempted to appeal his sentence.

But the Parole Board refused to grant Abedin leniency and branded him “not suitable to be released”.

Terror expert Anthony Glees told Daily Star Online he thinks early release is only half the problem and believes sentencing as a whole needs to be tackled in order to deter jihadis.

The UK has suffered 18 extremist attacks since Abedin, with the most recent being on February 2, 2020, in Streatham High Street, London.

The world watched as Sudesh Amman, a 20-year-old, who had been freed on automatic release from prison, stabbed two people in broad daylight.

Armed officers had been monitoring Amman, who was staying at a hostel in South London, and shot him as he fled.

The attack sparked “emergency” action from the government who announced they would be putting an end to the early release of prisoners who had been convicted of terrorism.

Mr Glees told Daily Star Online: “Britain is in a very dark place at the moment in respect to law and order and the dial really needs to be turned up to combat this.

“There is no deterrent for these criminals.

“One of the people who is due to be released is Moinul Abedin, Britain’s first jihadist Islamist terrorist.

“He was released and then they threw him back into prison again because of what they discovered.

“What the government really needs to tackle is sentencing, this should not be ignored, we are told there are about 224 terrorists in prison at the moment and the vast majority of those sentences are of four years of less, people who do things most ordinary people wouldn’t, like share videos of beheadings, incite people to kill.

“Terrorists need to be locked up for a long time, 15-year sentences like Abedin.

Moinul Abedin has now almost served his entire sentence and will be eligible for parole in November 2020.

Police said Abedin’s arrest marked “the first-time” an al-Qaeda inspired plot had appeared in Britain.

At the time, he said: “This was before there was a common discussion about al-Qaeda and related issues. This was the first time that this has appeared in this country.

“What strikes me looking back was how extraordinary it was that we had no context to put it in.”

Source: The Daily Star