Almost 400 ISIS jihadis trained in Iraq and Syria are now at large on Britain's streets... as it's revealed just 14 fighters who have returned to the UK have been jailed
- Shock figure is far lower than government Ministers previously claimed
- Experts said they could use skills honed on battlefield to plot atrocities
- Ministers admitted just 14 ex-fighters convicted, after claiming it was 54
Imran Khawaja was jailed for 12 years after he was caught trying to sneak back into Britain
Just 14
battle-hardened ISIS fighters who returned to Britain after waging war
in Syria have been jailed, the Government has admitted.
The
shock figure is far lower than Ministers previously claimed and means
almost 400 jihadis trained in Syria and Iraq are at large on Britain’s
streets.
Experts
told The Mail on Sunday they could use the deadly skills with automatic
weapons and bombs that they honed on the battlefield to plot atrocities
such as the Paris and Brussels attacks in the UK, massacring hundreds.
Figures
slipped out in Parliament reveal that the Home Office believes 850
Britons have travelled to fight for the Islamic State terror group and
although many have been killed by drone strikes and in battle, about 400
have sneaked back into the UK.
Any
of them could be prosecuted as it is a crime to attend terrorist
training camps and also to be a member of a banned group such as ISIS.
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But
Ministers admit that only 14 people who have fought for Islamic State
have been convicted, despite mistakenly claiming the number was 54
earlier this year.
Last
night, critics urged Home Secretary Amber Rudd to give more money to
the Border Force so it can catch terrorists as they sneak back into the
country, as well as ensuring that police and MI5 have enough officers to
track down those already here.
Labour
MP Khalid Mahmood, who believes thousands of Britons have travelled to
Syria and Iraq, said: ‘It is a tiny number who have been prosecuted and
it’s absurd to say this is any form of success.
‘If they know who they are, they should be prosecuted but the police and security services don’t have the resources to do that.’
But Gianluca Tomaselli (left and right) who fought in Syria, is working as an NHS parking attendant in London
Professor
Anthony Glees, Director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence
Studies at the University of Buckingham, told The Mail on Sunday that
the ‘minuscule’ number of prosecutions was ‘very disturbing’.
‘These
people have been trained to be killers and people will think it beggars
belief [that they haven’t been prosecuted]. What message are we sending
out to the world?
‘If you go out to join a regime like so-called Islamic State, you forfeit your right to come back.’
Former
Security Minister Lord West of Spithead said: ‘We know that people who
have been abroad and radicalised are extremely dangerous.
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