Terror Checks Intensify As London Bridge Attack Enters Election Fray

Britain's Boris Johnson said Sunday the security services were stepping up monitoring of convicted terrorists released early from prison, as the London Bridge attack became embroiled in the election campaign. "They are being properly invigilated to make sure there is no threat. We've taken a lot of action as you can imagine in the last 48 hours," Johnson told the BBC.

Khan has become a contentious political issue ahead of Britain's December 12 election, with Johnson blaming the previous Labour government for changing the law in 2008 to allow for the early release of prisoners.

The Conservative leader vowed that if he reclaims power this month he will end early release for terrorist offences and introduce minimum 14-year sentences, with some convicted never to be released.

The profile pieced together of Khan on the basis of his conviction on terrorism offences reveals a "serious jihadi" who was the youngest in a nine-member group of Islamist radicals jailed in 2012 for planning to bomb the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the US Embassy as well as target VIPs such as Boris Johnson, then the Mayor of London.

The court documents seen by 'The Sunday Times' reveal that the authorities were much more concerned about the sophistication displayed by Khan and others from his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, who were planning to set up a terrorist training facility "under the cover of a madrassa" on land owned by his family in PoK.

When he sentenced Khan in 2012, Justice Alan Wilkie had said that the future London Bridge attacker was on a "more long-term and sustained path" and would try to recruit and train "more serious and effective terrorists" to wreak mayhem.

"In my judgment, these offenders would remain, even after a lengthy term of imprisonment, of such a significant risk that the public could not be adequately protected by their being managed on licence in the community," he said,

Justice Wilkie said that "the risk they pose is so significant that it can only be adequately met by an indeterminate sentence".

However, the "indeterminate sentence" was scaled down on appeal at the Court of Appeal in 2013, making Khan eligible for early release under licence conditions after eight years a term which completed in December 2018.