Piers Morgan says terrorists like Usman Khan should never be released

‘The Kray twins were never let out. Yet we let Al Qaeda terrorists out’: Piers Morgan says terrorists like Usman Khan should never be released from prison in hot-tempered GMB debate with human rights lawyers and campaigners

• Piers Morgan said the UK should lock terrorists up in jail and ‘throw away the key’
• Said convicted terrorists should face same fate as criminals such as Kray twins
• Brothers handed life sentences when they were found guilty of offences in 1969
• Comes after Usman Khan killed two people less than a year after release from jail

Piers Morgan has called for convicted terrorists such as London Bridge attacker Usman Khan to never be released from prison.

The Good Morning Britain host said that the UK should lock terrorists up in jail and ‘throw away the key’ in a hot-tempered debate with human rights lawyers today.

He said those convicted of terror charges should face the same fate as offenders such as the Kray twins and Peter Sutcliffe, also known as the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’.

All three convicts were handed life sentences when they were found guilty of violent offences.

Morgan claimed the same strict punishment should have applied to Khan, who pleaded guilty to Al-Qaeda-inspired terror plots in 2012.

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London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan (pictured handing out extreme Islamic leaflets) killed two people less than a year after his release from jail

Notorious East End gangsters Reggie Kray (left) and Ronnie Kray (right) were both jailed for life in 1969 for a series of violent offences, including murder and armed robbery

The Good Morning Britain host said that the UK should lock terrorists up in jail and ‘throw away the key’ in a hot-tempered debate with human rights lawyers including Michael Mansfield

He received an indeterminate sentence in 2012 with a minimum term of eight years for planning to bomb the Stock Exchange and Houses of Parliament, among others.

But his original sentence was quashed and he was then sentenced to a 16-year term which allowed him to be automatically released after serving eight years. 

Less than a year after he release on licence, Khan carried out a terror attack at London Bridge, stabbing two people to death before he was shot dead. 

Speaking about the decision to release Khan on ITV today, Morgan said: ‘If you are a self-confessed terrorist in this country then you don’t come out of prison.

‘The judge said that Usman was particularly more dangerous than the others because he was strategic in his thinking and here we are all these years later.

‘I completely believe in the rehab of prisoners, both in prison and out and in trying to give people a second chance. 

Khan, 28, was shot dead by armed police after killing two people during a terror attack on London Bridge on Friday 

Morgan today called for convicted terrorists such as London Bridge attacker Usman Khan to never be released from prison

‘But I would make an exception for murderers, and we should make an exception for Al Qaeda and ISIS.

‘The Yorkshire ripper has never been let out, the Kray twins were never let out. Yet we let Al Qaeda terrorists out.

‘There’s no way in a million years he was going to deradicalise in eight years. This has been the perfect storm scenario which you could have predicted.’

Notorious East End gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray were both jailed for life in 1969 for a series of violent offences, including murder and armed robbery.

Ronnie remained in Broadmoor Hospital until his death from a heart attack in 1995, while Reggie died from bladder cancer eight weeks after his release from prison on compassionate grounds in 2000.

Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe was jailed for life in 1981 for the murder of 13 women and attempted murder of seven others, and was handed a whole life order in 2010

Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe was jailed for life in 1981 for the murder of 13 women and attempted murder of seven others, and was handed a whole life order in 2010.

Moazzam Begg, who was formerly detained at Guantanamo Bay, said he was opposed to such sentences for those convicted of certain terror offences.

Begg, a British Pakistani from Birmingham, spent almost three years in US custody on suspicion of terrorist affiliations between 2002 and 2005.

He said: ‘I was arrested for sending a generator to the Free Syrian Army rebels. At that time the British Government had sent 1,000 generators to the same people.

‘If you had your own way I would have been convicted as a terrorist and I would have had the key thrown away.’

Begg added: ‘If you never release terrorists you would have never released Nelson Mandela.’

Human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield criticised the amount of cuts to the justice system, which meant offenders were not being monitored closely enough for warning signs while in prison.

He said: ‘There needs to be a dedicated prison officer who has the job and the task of getting to know the individual prisoner for which they are given care.

‘They are not the only thing but that is how you assess if you are being deceived at a parole board, which is very easy.

‘The infrastructure is not there through the cuts, there must be a way of assessing is someone is dangerous. We can’t lock people up for the rest of their lives.’

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