The Henry Jackson Society today commented on the sentencing to life imprisonment of the Parsons Green Tube bomber, Ahmed Hassan.
Nikita Malik, Director of the Centre for the Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism at the Henry Jackson Society, said:
“The Parsons Green attack raises questions which must urgently be answered if we are to ensure that British people are safe from the threat of foreign fighters returning from abroad.
“Ahmed Hassan was never assigned a Prevent mentor despite telling officials that he had trained with Islamic State. Clearly there are lessons to be learned from this case.
“Deradicalisation is an inexact science but we must constantly be reviewing how reliable current thinking and practices are, so that we succeed in recognising the signs that people are becoming more liable to commit acts of terrorism.
“While our intelligence services have a good record when it comes to identifying extremists, this case shows that there is still more to be done when it comes to spotting which ones pose a direct threat and warrant closer monitoring, or the use of measures such as TPIMs.”