Al-Qaeda Terrorist Denied Parole After 14 Years in UK Jail

A prison guard at HMP Pentonville stands behind a locked gate in London on May 19, 2003. Ian Waldie/Getty Images

A British-born terrorist, who was jailed for life in 2008 for heading up an al-Qaeda cell that was preparing to commit a massacre in South Africa, has been denied parole.

Rangzieb Ahmed, 47, was the first person in Britain to be convicted of directing terrorism.

In 2008, after being deported from Pakistan, Ahmed was convicted at Manchester Crown Court and jailed for life with a minimum term of 10 years for planning a terror attack with an al-Qaeda cell based in Dubai.

During his trial, Ahmed claimed he had been tortured in Pakistan—with the complicity of MI6—by the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, who he said beat him up and ripped out his fingernails while attempting to obtain information about al-Qaeda.

Rangzieb Ahmed, 47, was the first person to be convicted in the UK of directing terrorism. GMP

But the Court of Appeal rejected his claims and he was denied leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.

Tried to Sue MI6 Over Pakistan Torture Claims

In 2020, he sought to sue MI5, MI6, the Foreign Office, the Home Office, the attorney general, and Greater Manchester Police, claiming they had all been complicit in his torture and false imprisonment while in Pakistan.

This week, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons said nine convicted terrorists being held in separation centres were not engaging offender behaviour courses targeted at Islamist extremists, but the Parole Board accepted Ahmed had engaged with an accredited programme while behind bars.

But the Parole Board said concerns had been raised about his “attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour.”

The panel heard evidence from prison staff, probation officers, psychologists, a former police officer, a professor of Arabic, and also interviewed Ahmed.

They said a plan for him to live in “designated accommodation” with strict limitations placed on his contacts, movements, and activities wasn’t “robust” enough to manage the threat he still posed.

Ahmed is one of almost 100 convicted Islamist terrorists who are eligible for parole from British prisons.

In December 2021, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall QC, warned that mistakes could be made about releasing some of these inmates.

Messages of condolence and floral tributes, including a photograph of victim Jack Merritt, are seen near the scene of a stabbing on London Bridge, in London on Dec. 1, 2019. Toby Melville/Reuters

Among the convicted terrorists who have been freed in recent years were Usman Khan, who murdered two people at Fishmongers’ Hall in London in 2019, 11 months after being released, and Sudesh Amman, who was shot dead by police after stabbing shoppers in Streatham, south London, a month after being freed.

Hall said the Parole Board would be “ultra-cautious” following those incidents, especially considering Khan had convinced a prison chaplain and a probation officer that he had given up the Islamist cause.

PA Media contributed to this report.