LONDON: A man released early from a prison sentence for terror offenses who was shot dead by police after going on a stabbing spree, was lawfully killed, an inquest jury said Friday.
But the jury at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London also concluded that the attack could have been prevented if Sudesh Amman had been recalled to prison after buying items used to make a fake suicide belt.
Undercover officers shot dead Amman, 20, at close range after he stole a knife and injured two members of the public in Streatham, south London, on February 2, 2020.
The knife attack came just months after another man, who was also freed part-way through a prison sentence for terror offenses, killed two people in central London.
Both cases forced the British government to tighten early release rules for serious offenders, including for those found guilty of extremism.
Amman, born in Coventry, central England, and of Sri Lankan descent, was convicted in 2018 of 13 counts of collecting material useful for terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications, and given a 40-month prison sentence.
A police report compiled before he was freed in January 2020 called him “one of the most dangerous individuals we have investigated” because of his extremist views.
The court was told his behavior in prison had been increasingly violent and he had wanted to join Daesh, become a suicide bomber and kill the Queen.
Intelligence officers involved in the case said he remained an individual of “great concern” and wanted him to remain behind bars as he was still a danger to the public.
But even after he was spotted buying items for a fake suicide belt, which prompted an emergency meeting to discuss his actions, he was kept under 24-hour surveillance.
The jury said the probation service “missed an opportunity” to recall him to prison.
Firearms officers defended their use of deadly force after he went on the rampage with a butcher’s knife, saying it prevented a greater tragedy.
The coroner, judge Nicholas Hilliard, said officers “put themselves in harm’s way.”
“They are to be commended for their bravery and they are owed a considerable debt of gratitude for their bravery,” he added.
A separate inquest held into the police shooting of Usman Khan also condemned official failings that allowed him to knife two people to death near London Bridge in November 2019.
Khan, who was also found to be wearing a hoax suicide belt, was similarly under surveillance by counter-terror police and the domestic intelligence service, MI5.
UK knife attack by terror convict could have been stopped: Jury
https://arab.news/9k2q4
UK knife attack by terror convict could have been stopped: Jury
- A police report called Amman “one of the most dangerous individuals we have investigated”
- The court was told his behavior in prison had been increasingly violent and he had wanted to join Daesh, become a suicide bomber
Iran hacking group claims attack on US medical company
- It issued an open warning to what it described as “Zionist leaders and their lobbies,” adding: “This is only the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare.”
WASHINGTON: An Iran-linked hacking group claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a sweeping cyberattack on US medical technology giant Stryker, saying it had wiped more than 200,000 systems and extracted 50 terabytes of data in retaliation for military strikes on Iran.
“Our major cyber operation has been executed with complete success,” Handala said in a statement, describing the attack as retaliation for what it called “the brutal attack on the Minab school” and for “ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure of the Axis of Resistance.”
The group said it had shut down Stryker offices in 79 countries and that all extracted data was “now in the hands of the free people of the world.”
It issued an open warning to what it described as “Zionist leaders and their lobbies,” adding: “This is only the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare.”
Founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Stryker is a global medical device giant with some 56,000 employees and $25.12 billion in 2025 revenues, making everything from orthopedic implants and surgical instruments to hospital beds and robotic surgery systems.
The Handala group later posted that it had also carried out an attack on Verifone, which specializes in electronic and point-of-sale payments.
The outages began shortly after 0400 GMT on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Windows devices — including laptops and mobile phones connected to Stryker’s networks — were remotely wiped.
