Terrorist who 'confessed to masterminding 7/7 attack could be freed within days'
Haroon Aswat, from Batley, West Yorkshire, was jailed in the US for 20 years in 2015 for plotting to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
He only had to serve seven years because of time spent at a psychiatric detention unit in the UK where he was taken after being arrested in Zambia in 2005 in the wake of the July 7 bombings in London.
In 2022, he was deported to the UK and detained under the Mental Health Act, and has been held since at South London's Bethlem Royal Hospital.
According to The Sun, a 'legal loophole' related to risk checks means the 50-year-old could walk free as soon as next week.
A court hearing in April heard his release was 'expected in the relatively near future'.
It was held to approve a notification order which meant authorities must be provided updates on his post-release whereabouts, such as his address.
The Sun also reported that US court documents disclosed a confession by Haswat that he was a 'mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks and a 2005 terrorist attack in the UK'.
It's not clear how the alleged confession was made or whether it led to any further investigation.
Haroon was previously linked to the 7/7 bombings, although he was never convicted of playing a role in it.
Police sources initially told newspapers that two of the suspected bombers had received around 20 calls from a mobile phone linked to Aswat.
But they were not sure if the calls were made by 'the man himself'.
Detectives investigating the 7/7 bombings traced 20 calls by the perpetrators to a phone linked to Aswat before the attack, but Aswat was never convicted of playing a role in it.
A 2022 report by a psychiatrist found there 'remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism' by Aswat.
UK law means a formal terror risk assessment cannot be carried out while an individual is being detained in this way.
The judge presiding over the April hearing said at the time: 'Although (the psychiatrist) did not conduct a full risk assessment for terrorist risk, he identified 15 of the 22 relevant factors … as being likely to be present.
'No formal terrorist risk assessment has been carried out in the United Kingdom since the defendant's return here. The circumstances of his detention have precluded that.
'However, on the basis of the material which is available, the defendant has been assessed by various police officers … that he remains a risk to national security.'
He said that the psychiatrist had concluded: 'there remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism-motivated targeted terrorist offending behaviour given his threats to kill Jews, Christians and certain groups of Muslims … (t)here is also a risk of him influencing other vulnerable individuals, as when he is in an abnormal mental state his religious extremist rhetoric is amplified by mental illness'. More Trending
Aswat, who is now 50, helped to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and Seattle in the US in 1999.
The US government described it as a camp 'to train young impressionable men in America to fight and kill so that they could travel to Afghanistan to join forces with Al Qaeda'.
He then travelled to Afghanistan to receive training from Al Qaeda in 2001, and did not appear on the radar of Western authorities until his 2005 arrest in Zambia.
In March 2015, he pleaded guilty in the US to one count of conspiracy to provide support to a foreign terrorist organisation before January 1, 2000, and to another charge related to providing material to a terrorist organisation.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
I was on FaceTime call with my best friend when she was killed in a horror car crash – her screams will haunt me forever
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A YOUNG woman who was on FaceTime with her best pal when she was killed in a car crash says she'll be haunted by the memory forever. Ebony Neville heard tragic work colleague Stephanie Nye-Diroyan suddenly scream as the video call cut out. 9 Ivan Zailac and Stephanie Nye-Diroyan (right) just seconds before the fatal crash Credit: Ebony Neville 9 Stephanie, 21, was killed in the horror collision Credit: Central News 9 Ebony Neville (left) and Stephanie were best pals, having met at work months before Credit: Ebony Neville The 21-year-old then began frantically trying to call her friend back before getting into her own car and driving along the same route, eventually coming across the crash site. Stephanie, 21, was a passenger in a BMW being driven by another work colleague, Ivan Zaliac, 24, when they ploughed into a lorry at nearly 100mph on Mollison Avenue, in Enfield North London. Ebony told The Sun: "Seconds before the phone cut out you could hear the engine revving and Stephanie's scream - then it froze on her face." She added: 'I tried to ring her back - I don't know what I was thinking had happened. READ MORE NEWS DEATH SMASH Sales exec killed colleague in 100mph horror crash - but walks free from court 'I then got in my car and I didn't know where to go, I knew that they were in Brimsdown, in that local area, but I had no idea where.' Zaliac - who walked free from court last month after being deemed unfit to stand trial - had been giving Stephanie a lift on October 23 2022 after they finished work at nearby second hand car dealership Big Motoring World. Ebony was ill that day and Stephanie had agreed to stop off to see her on her way home when she died. The crash happened at 7.54pm. 'It was literally a quick call,' explained Ebony. 'She worked that day - it was a Sunday - and I wasn't in. 'It was a quick catch up, really. 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Email 9 Ebony had rushed out in her own car after learning about the crash Credit: Ebony Neville 9 Stephanie with her pals Ella, Mia and Millie on a night out Credit: Ebony Neville
Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Our benefits street is like a slum… people flog sex at all hours & I strung up wall of dead rats to deter druggies
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) DODGING a squashed rat, a young man and woman race each other on mobility scooters, while the distinctive smell of weed momentarily interrupts the putrid stench of decaying rubbish. 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'Wall of Rats' 17 Father-of-two Andrew Wilshaw set up the Facebook group How Clean in Eastwood, which has 800 members, to try to shame the council into action Credit: Glen Minikin 17 Dave has started laying down poison, and has gone through two tubs in the past three months Credit: Glen Minikin 17 Dave hung up a string of rodent carcasses outside his house Credit: Glen Minikin 17 Some residents say they are too scared to let their kids play outside because there are so many rats and rodent faeces Credit: Glen Minikin Petty crime and the brazen dumping of rubbish - which is fuelling a surging population of rodents - is blighting the lives of many Eastwood residents we speak to. Granddad-of-11 Dave Russell, 74, created a 'Wall of Rats' with some of his kills. He explains: 'The rats used to be lined all across but the birds have been eating them. 'I did it to show the council how bad it is for us. This is what we live with. 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'Lawless' 17 Resident Kaz Gunn refuses to move from the estate even though she's had to get her door replaced twice from thugs constantly bashing it Credit: Glen Minikin 17 Petty crime and the brazen dumping of rubbish - which is fuelling a surging population of rodents - is blighting the lives of many Eastwood residents we speak to Credit: Glen Minikin 17 The council does extra clean-up operations in the area, but frustrated locals say it doesn't seem to make much difference Credit: Glen Minikin 17 Kaz says some residents have mobility scooters even though they're not disabled Credit: Glen Minikin Resident Kaz Gunn, 55, refuses to move from the estate even though she's had to get her door replaced twice from thugs constantly bashing it. Kaz, who suffers with osteoporosis, says: 'I always speak out and take photos of people throwing rubbish, but then I make myself a target. 'Anybody who passes my door will always make sure to give it a good thud on their way by. 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'Heartbreaking' 17 Though pushchairs are a regular feature outside the dishevelled terraced houses, Andrew tells us they are primarily used to transport waste Credit: Glen Minikin 17 Andrew says you can't have anything in your garden or it will get nicked Credit: Glen Minikin Bar the odd corner shop and a new play park for kids, there is not much to do in the PSPO catchment, with cafes and pubs long gone. Despite it being the school summer holidays, the streets are void of children playing. Though pushchairs are a regular feature outside the dishevelled terraced houses, Andrew tells us they are primarily used to transport waste. 'You see so many prams outside the houses - they look innocent enough but they're actually for the people to pile high with rubbish and take it to be dumped. It's crazy,' he says. 'There are a couple of fellas around here who have vans and operate as the local skip. They take loads of rubbish and dump it. 'We know who these people are yet nothing is done. 'Somebody set fire to some rubbish piled outside an old fella's home just last week and it killed all 90 of his pigeons. Somebody set fire to some rubbish piled outside an old fella's home just last week and it killed all 90 of his pigeons Andrew Wilshaw 'And you certainly can't have anything in your garden or it will get nicked. It's heartbreaking. 'Every so often there will be a power cut because of all the power being used to grow cannabis in some houses. "It's not fair because Eastwood was already a working class area and we've now become a dumping ground for people and rubbish. 'Sometimes I wonder why I keep doing this but then somebody in their 80s will come to me with concerns and fears, and I keep going.' He adds: 'It's not great to walk around here during the day but you'd be insane to come here at night. 'Each night there will be around 40 Slovakian Roma people drinking in the park. 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Rhyl Journal
6 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
BBC to investigate cocaine use by Strictly Come Dancing stars
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