An Islamist terror suspect in the UK charged with breaking restrictions on his movements had crossed through London’s Olympic Park five times, newspapers reported yesterday.
The 24-year-old — named only as CF — is suspected of being a militant for Somalia’s al-Qaeda-allied Shebab rebels, the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mirror said.
He is one of nine people suspected of being a risk to national security who are subject to Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIM) — legal orders which restrict movements, contacts and computer use.
The Sunday Mirror said he was a British jihadist. The Sunday Telegraph said he comes from a large Somali family in north London.
CF was deported from Somalia back to the UK in March last year.
He served two months in jail for a previous absconding offense before being released and placed under the terrorism prevention restrictions and ordered to live in Norwich, eastern England.
He wears an electronic tag allowing the authorities to track his movements.
CF was arrested again last month and charged with five separate breaches of an order banning him from using the train route that passes through the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London.
The alleged offenses occurred between April and May.
He is due to be prosecuted later this year.
CF is to challenge the banning order at the High Court today, newspapers reported.
Following his arrest, a lawyer for the British Home Office interior ministry warned that CF was committed to “Islamist extremism.”
In papers lodged in the High Court proceedings, he said British Home Secretary Theresa May believes that were it not for his TPIM restrictions, CF “would re-engage in terrorism-related activities, either in the UK or Somalia.”
It could not be said that he has “renounced his commitment to terrorism,” the lawyer said. “As CF has previously re-engaged in Islamist extremist activity, despite being on bail, previous disruptive action has not been enough to dissuade him from his involvement in Islamist extremism.”
A spokeswoman for the state Crown Prosecution Service said: “CF has been charged with five offenses of breaching his TPIM. He is next in [criminal] court on July 27.”
The London Olympic opening ceremony will take place on the same day.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in