Convicted terrorists thought to be due for release before end of March

According to the right-leaning think tank Henry Jackson Society and reports in the Times newspaper, those who could be released may include:

– Mohammed Ghani

Ghani, from Barnet, north London, who was sentenced to two years and four months in prison May last year after threatening to kill police officers.

He admitted eight counts of possession of terrorist material after downloading copies of the al Qaida magazine Inspire.

According to a Scotland Yard statement at the time of his sentencing, counter-terrorism police arrested Ghani, then 28, at his home on January 12 2019, after he made calls to 999 and the anti-terrorist hotline in which he claimed he would kill people or police officers.

Ghani was in the Channel intervention programme at the time, having expressed extremist views.

– Jamshed Javeed

Radicalised chemistry teacher Javeed was jailed for six years in March 2015 for planning to travel from his Manchester home to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State (IS).

He was poised to travel to the war-torn state in late 2013, but his plans were initially thwarted when his family hid his passport.

He persisted, even after learning his wife was pregnant, but the teacher, who taught in Bolton, was arrested hours before he was set to leave the UK.

In his basis of plea, he insisted he was travelling only to support the people of Syria, not to join the terror group.

– Mohammed Khilji

Khilji, from north-west London, was sentenced to five years in prison in June 2018 after being found guilty of posting beheading videos on WhatsApp, as well as footage giving advice on how to make a car bomb.

He initially came to the attention of police after he digitally altered footage of a wargame video to make it appear that the featured soldiers were IS fighters, and posted the clip on YouTube.

Khilji, then 19, had superimposed black Isis flags on the Battlefield video game and overlaid it with a terrorist battle song and a quote from an IS propaganda magazine.

According to Counter Terrorism Policing, officers also found videos on his phone and computer, including one which featured footage of the Westminster terrorist attack in 2017, and concluded by offering advice on preparing a vehicle-borne bomb.

– Mohammed Zahir Khan

Sunderland shopkeeper Khan posted messages and material that was supportive of IS on social media.

The father-of-one, originally from Birmingham, had served long sentences in the past for drugs supply offences and moved to the north east to make a break from gangs.

But he spread hatred on Twitter, saying “death to shias… death to every single one of them”, describing them as “dirty and filthy shiite scum” and calling for them to be burnt alive.

He was jailed for four-and-a-half years in May 2018.

– RXG

According to the Times, Britain’s youngest terrorist, a boy known only as RXG who plotted to murder police officers in Australia, is due for release this month.

The boy became involved in orchestrating a plot where a co-conspirator would launch attacks during a 2015 Anzac Day parade.

He received a life sentence with a minimum term of five years in 2015, having been arrested in March that year.

– Atiq Ahmed

The Times also reported that Ahmed, from Oldham, who was arrested after hurling abuse at staff at a school in the town and later found to have IS propaganda on his phone, is due to be released in March.

He was jailed for four-and-a-half years in May 2018 after extremist material was found on devices including a tablet that had been dumped in his kitchen bin.

It contained several issues of a terrorist magazine that had articles on terrorist tactics and bomb-making instructions.