Sudesh Amman and London Bridge killer Usman Khan had links to the same Sheikh of hate

A jihadi who stabbed two shoppers in Streatham over the weekend was devoted to a notorious ‘Sheikh of hate’ who was booted out of Britain for inciting racial hatred at his south London mosque, it has been revealed – as it’s also found the November London Bridge attacker was also a follower.

Sudesh Amman, 20, was shot dead by police on Sunday after grabbing a knife from a shop and attacking two bystanders in Streatham High Road, south London. A third person was injured by flying glass during the gunfire.

He had been jailed for possessing and distributing terrorist documents in December 2018, but was freed automatically halfway through his sentence less than a fortnight ago.

The attack, in which Amman wore a fake suicide vest in a bid to become a ‘martyr’, had startling similarities to the killing spree carried out by Usman Khan, 28, another former prisoner, who fatally stabbed two Cambridge graduates, Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25, in a knifing rampage at Fishmongers’ Hall on November 29, 2019.

Both men, according to The Times, had links to Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal who has been accused of inspiring hundreds of jihadists, including the 7/7 bombers who killed 52 people in London in 2005.

It was found that Khan had el-Faisal’s number in his mobile phone when he was arrested for links to a London Stock Exchange terror attack in December 2010. And it was also found that Amman had texts attributed to el-Faisal when he was arrested while planning his own attack.

The revelation comes after two terrorist sympathizers were convicted in December for spreading the hate speeches of the Islamist preacher.

Mohammed Kamali, 31, and Mohammed Abdul Ahad, 38, published sermons given by notorious terror recruiter el-Faisal.

The speeches ‘glorified’ terrorist organisations including Al-Qaeda and ISIS and ‘encouraged’ listeners to commit or prepare for acts of terrorism, the Old Bailey heard.

El-Faisal, now 56, claimed he was reflecting the words of the Koran but the ‘Sheikh of Hate’ was convicted of three charges of soliciting to murder and jailed for nine years in 2003.

Kamali and Ahad were among a network of ‘volunteers’ who published el-Faisal’s speeches on a website called ‘Authentic Tauheed’ between 2012 and 2014.

An Old Bailey jury convicted Ahad of four charges of disseminating terrorist material and one of possessing articles useful for terrorism. Kamali was found guilty of four charges.

Preacher el-Faisal was deported from Britain in 2007 after his release. He had earlier been banned from teaching at his Brixton mosque. He is currently wanted for terrorism offences in the US and is fighting extradition from Jamaica.

The news comes as a woman attacked by Streatham terrorist Amman revealed she escaped harm because he tried to stab her with a knife still in its plastic packaging.

The woman, 36, originally from the Dominican Republic, told the BBC the incident was ‘horrific’ and ‘like a movie’.

In an interview translated from Spanish, she said she is struggling to walk the streets again after the traumatic experience.

Amman, 20, was shot dead by police on Sunday after grabbing the knife from a shop and attacking two bystanders in Streatham High Road, south London. A third person was injured by flying glass during the gunfire.

He had been jailed for possessing and distributing terrorist documents in December 2018, but was freed automatically halfway through his sentence less than a fortnight ago.

It comes as Amman’s father Faraz Khan said he did not realise his son had been radicalised in prison and ‘never thought he would go this far’.

The woman, referred to as Rosa although it is not her real name, said she was in a shop in Streatham High Road when Amman pushed her and tried to knife her.

She told the BBC: ‘He came in and took a knife and he looked like he was leaving the shop. The owner thought he was going to stop by the cashier to pay.

‘But… he pushed me, he tried to open and remove the plastic packaging from the knife, but he didn’t manage.

‘He pushed and he stabbed me but the knife was still covered with plastic.’

Meanwhile, one of Amman’s victims has been named in reports as teacher Monika Luftner.

In a statement, St Bede’s Catholic Infant & Nursery School in Lambeth said a member of staff was making a ‘good recovery after experiencing a shocking attack’.

The Government is now pressing ahead with plans for emergency laws to keep terrorists behind bars for longer, by ending automatic release halfway through a sentence.

There are 224 terrorists in prison in Great Britain, with most thought to be holding Islamist-extremist views, according to the latest published figures to the end of September.

As many as 50 terrorists could be freed from jail this year, figures suggest.

On Monday, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said emergency legislation was needed to make sure offenders serve two-thirds of their sentence before they are considered eligible for release, at which point their case would be considered by a panel of specialist judges and psychiatrists at the Parole Board.

The new law is expected to be passed by the time Parliament goes into recess on February 13, despite warnings that this could prompt legal challenges from those already serving sentences set under previous rules.

Senior Cabinet minister and former justice secretary Michael Gove told Sky News that terrorists should be imprisoned indefinitely ‘if necessary’.

However, Downing Street acknowledged that there was nothing to prevent prisoners being automatically released until the emergency law is passed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman would not say if any terrorists were due for release before the new law comes in.

The Government did not rule out derogating – effectively suspending – the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in order to apply the new measures.

About 50 terrorists are released from prison each year, according to officials, and the figure is expected to be similar in 2020 unless rules change.

Home Office data shows 41 convicted terrorists were released from jail in the year to June, as well as 12 suspects who had been held in custody but not sentenced.

Source: Daily Mail