EXCLUSIVE: Abdul Aziz Jalil – said to be a “minder” for Al-Qaeda’s “UK General” Dhiren Barot – will be freed from prison despite a last-ditch bid to overturn a Parole Board ruling
Abdul Aziz Jalil – who was diagnosed with autism behind bars – will walk free despite fears about the risk he poses(Image: PA)
A trusted lieutenant of British Al-Qaeda mastermind Dhiren Barot is to walk free despite fears he will offend again.
The Justice Secretary launched a last-ditch bid to keep Abdul Aziz Jalil, now 53, locked up after a Parole Board cleared him for release. In 2007 he was jailed for 26 years after a court heard he was part of an Al-Qaeda sleeper cell that assisted Barot, 54, in planning a series of bomb plots in New York and London, but will now be released after 19 years.
Now documents reveal Jalil has been released twice from jail. But the military fanatic was recalled most recently in March last year for breaching his licence after searching for “weapons and drones” online while also accessing a Reddit forum.
But the Parole Board’s judicial member, HHJ Jeremy Roberts KC, said there was “an important difference between [Jalil’s] innocent interest in military publications and an intention to obtain or use military hardware [or to supply it to anyone else] for terrorist purposes”. HHJ Roberts dismissed the Justice Secretary’s application for reconsideration of the Parole Board’s decision to release Jalil, claiming it was “irrational”.
He understood the “concern about the possibility that [Jalil] might at some stage be tempted to engage in very serious activity of the kind for which he is serving his lengthy sentence”. However he said he could not “find any fault with the panel’s decision”.
It means Jalil will be freed and placed under strict counter-terror surveillance. Jalil was one of seven men jailed in 2007 for a combined 136 years. He was handed a 26-year sentence and was believed to be Barot’s “minder”. He pleaded guilty during his trial at Woolwich Crown Court to conspiracy to cause explosions between 2001 and 2004 alongside his fellow terrorist helpers, who provided intelligence and support to Barot.
Jalil, from Luton, had rented a “safe house” for Barot where planning material was kept and his fingerprints were found on documents connected to chemicals. He also attended terror training camps in Pakistan and helped with research into radioactivity.
In Parole Board documents seen by the Mirror, HHJ Roberts KC wrote: “[Jalil] comes from a Pakistani family but has resided in the UK for most of his life. In or about 2001 he became involved with [Barot] a British citizen who had embraced Islamic extremism and received training for various terrorist activities.
“[Jalil] became the most trusted of a number of [Barot’s] associates when he was planning terrorist attacks [four different plans any of which would have been likely to have serious consequences]. Fortunately, these plans did not come to fruition, and the participants were apprehended and charged.”
Alongside Jalil, Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 27, Junade Feroze, 31, Zia Ul Haq, 28, Nadeem Tarmohamed, 29, Omar Abdur Rehman, 23, and 28-year-old Qaisar Shaffi were all jailed. The gang, all British Muslims, had been just weeks from launching their lethal attacks when they were arrested on the same day.
They planned to trigger a radioactive “dirty bomb” and detonate limos packed with gas cylinders and explosives beneath towering buildings in the capital. Indian-born Muslim convert Barot, 35, was said to be a senior member of Osama bin Laden’s network and his chief operative in Britain. Barot, who has British nationality and is from Willesden in London, was sentenced to life in 2006, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to murder.
It was recommended he serve a minimum of 40 years, but was reduced to 30 years at the Court of Appeal. In early 2001, as the 9/11 plotters were finalising their plans to crash planes into targets in New York and Washington, Barot was also in the two US cities, scouting buildings used by some of the country’s most important financial bodies.
His plan was to bomb targets like the New York Stock Exchange and the International Monetary Fund. Barot, also known as Esa al-Britani and Abu Eissa al-Hindi, had a long history of involvement with Islamist militant groups.
By the time of the US bomb plots, some US officials believe he was either al Qaeda’s cell leader in Europe or at least the head of bin Laden’s organisation in Britain. Born to a Hindu family he converted to Islam when he was 20 and a book he wrote entitled “The Army of Madinah in Kashmir” reveals he trained with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and then fought against Indian forces.
According to the official US 9/11 Commission report, Barot was sent to the United States by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the bin Laden lieutenant who says he masterminded the September 11 attacks. Barot’s parents moved to the UK from Kenya in 1973 to escape violence and discrimination in Kenya, when he was only one.
