In Reading (Uk), time was the recollection Monday, June 22. A minute of silence, in homage to the three victims (one of whom is an American) to an attack with a knife, was observed at 10 hours. The Interior minister, Priti Patel, had made the trip in this city of 200 000 inhabitants, located sixty miles north of London. “We must ensure we learn the lessons of what happened over the weekend to prevent something like that happening again “, she said.
In the radar of the MI5
The british press stressed Monday that the suspect, presented as Khairi Saadallah, a libyan refugee of 25 years, had been in the radar of domestic intelligence (MI5) in 2019 because of the possible intentions of travelling abroad for terrorist purposes, but that there was no imminent risk had been highlighted. According to the agency Press Association, the young man had been jailed in October for crimes unrelated to terrorism, including the racist attack of a policewoman in 2018 and degradation voluntary.
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In march, the court of appeal had reduced his sentence to approximately 17 months ‘ imprisonment, in particular because of mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder. It was released in early June. In recent months, two attacks were carried out in London by attackers who had already been convicted of terrorist crimes. At the end of November, a jihadist on parole killed two people in the heart of the capital before being shot dead by police on the bridge of London-Bridge. On 2 February, three people were injured with a knife during an attack “of such a nature that the islamist” in a shopping street, according to police. The assailant was also killed by the forces of the order.
Stopped quickly
“In February of […], we have presented a draft law […] putting an end to the automatic release of the perpetrators of terrorist crimes in mid-sentence,” said a spokesman for the conservative Prime minister, Boris Johnson. “We have thus shown that we will act where there are lessons to be learned “, he added. During the weekend, the leader, ” sickened “, had stated that his government “would not hesitate to take action” where it would be needed.
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Saturday, the suspect, who was arrested “five minutes” after the first call to the police, acted alone to carry out this attack, considered a ” terrorist “, according to the police, who do not search the other person. “He ran very quickly “, said one witness, Sydney McDonald, a security officer of 65 years, the agency PA. When the police were overpowered, ” he was belly to the ground, and it is as if he had put his hands in a large bucket of red paint. They handcuffed, he has not opposed resistance. “
25 terrorist attacks foiled
over the past three years, the security services have foiled 25 terrorist attacks, said the secretary of State responsible for Security, James Brokenshire, on the BBC, pointing out that the threat extended over a wide spectrum ranging from the far right jihadism. Mark Rowley, the former head of counter-terrorism police in london, said on the BBC that if “about 3 000 people are the subject of an investigation to a certain time” to the terrorist threat they represent, ” there are 40,000 people […] whose name has touched the system.”
in Front of the gates of the park where took place the tragedy, during an evening in a sunny Saturday evening, the flowers were made in tribute to the victims. One of them is a u.s. citizen, said the United States ambassador in London, Woody Johnson, who has condemned “categorically” the attack. According to the american media, it comes from Joe Ritchie-Bennett, aged 39 years, a native of Philadelphia and installed in the last fifteen years in the United Kingdom where he worked for a pharmaceutical group. Figure also that which would have been his friend, James Furlong, age 36, a history teacher in a secondary school in the nearby town of Wokingham.
