Overview

• Haroon Aswat is due for release from Bethlem Royal Hospital in days under the Mental Health Act without having undergone a formal terrorist risk assessment.
• He will be bound only by a notification order requiring address registration and advance notice of travel, with no tagging or surveillance powers attached.
• Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command and a 2022 psychiatric report by Dr Richard Taylor warn that he remains a serious extremist threat even when mentally stable.
• US court records show Aswat confessed in 2017 to masterminding both the September 11 and 7/7 London attacks after training with al-Qaeda and assisting Abu Hamza’s terror camp.
• Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick and other security officials have condemned the impending release and urged lawmakers to close the mental health detention loophole.