Chris Ryan retweetledi
The Al-Qaeda terrorist and suspected mastermind of the 7/7 bombing in London 2005 in which 52 people were killed and 800 wounded, Haroon Aswat, was released early from psychiatric prison last year “after his schizophrenia improved.”
UK judges ruled for his release from psychiatric care, overriding police and security services’ warnings that he was still a massive danger to public security.
Aswat was linked via phone contacts with the bombers, had met some of them in Pakistan before the attack and had travelled back to the UK just weeks before the attacks and last the UK on the same morning that the attacks took place.
He was arrested in Zambia a few weeks later with bomb-making manuals.
The U.S. wanted him extradited for past terrorist offences on their territory but faced legal obstacles from European judges.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) first blocked his extradition to the USA due to concerns his paranoid schizophrenia would worsen in US prison conditions (breaching human rights against inhuman treatment). After US assurances on care, he was eventually extradited back in 2013.
He was sentenced in the USA in October 2015 to 20 years for conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda, including helping set up a jihadist training camp in Oregon with Abu Hamza associates.
After serving time, he was extradited back to the UK around 2022 and held under the Mental Health Act.
Last year, UK judges decided to give him an early release and he is now free in West Yorkshire with just limited monitoring since it was deemed that stricter measures such as being forced to wear an ankle monitor risked worsening his psychiatric status and would be against mental health law provisions.
English
