Muhammad Zahir Khan’s case.. New Challenge to the terrorism law

Amid the British government’s effort to undermine the opportunities for growing terrorism in the country, ISIS member Muhammad Zahir Khan, in early May 2020, managed to win his first judicial round against the new law in effect in the country since February 2020 to combat extremism.

Last February, after long parliamentary discussions, the British government passed a new law to tighten penalties for those accused in terrorism cases, specifically with regard to the duration of the prisoners ’imprisonment, which was equal to the overall duration of all penalties, including criminal, as well as preventing their early release, and after Their completion of the longer prison term is brought before a committee to determine whether or not they are eligible for release, and then subject them to a mandatory program of psychological treatment, and correct concepts.

These amendments would have held up the release of Zahir Khan from February 2020 to November 2020, which the terrorist’s lawyer had objected to in order to sue the British government and appeal against its new law; To reduce extremism, he actually managed to win the first round of the case.

The imprisoned ISIS lawyer claimed that the newly drafted law discriminates against Muslims, and excludes them exclusively from other people accused of racial issues, which, in his view, violates state standards and fundamental human rights that prohibit the enactment of special laws or practices in accordance with religion.

Consequently, the judge considered in the reasons for his decision that the claim of the lawyer is real, and the relevant bodies should review the material to ensure that it is free from any violation of the basic rights of citizens in the country, which shocked the society and government that relied on the new law as a deterrent against terrorist activities, which posed an escalating risk Over the country for the past few years.

Who is Zahir Khan?

Zahir Khan, the controversial case owner, is a 40-year-old British citizen from Birmingham who ran a shop in Sunderland, and was sentenced in 2008 on charges of promoting terrorism and inviting to join ISIS.

During the investigations he admitted that he had used social media to promote the organization, urged citizens to belong to him, and carry out extremist attacks according to his faith as a strategy to double the number of individual wolves.

It should be noted that according to the Guardian newspaper, the legal amendment made to the articles for the early release of terrorists was associated with similar cases that benefited from the early exit to return to carry out the attacks again, as happened with the terrorist Sudesh Amman, who carried out knife-stab attacks in his street, days after his release from prison Only, and other models, so the state tended to restrict the release of terrorists through tight terms.

The government defends the February law through a representative of the Justice Department, James Eddy Q. Mediator, who said that the new legislation applies to all terrorists and has no discrimination based on religion or race, and that its passage was to protect society and innocent people from the deadly attacks of extremists, confirming that Parliament from His right to distinguish terrorists as dangerous criminals.

The United Kingdom is one of the most prominent European countries that faced many challenges at the level of fighting terrorism. The laws related to the file were characterized by relative weakness and lack of ruggedness, which appeared in the problem of the Beatle ISIS leadership led by Mohamed Emwazy, which targeted the slaughter of foreigners in Syria during the control of ISIS took over the area, after the arrest of the British cell members Alexandre Coty and Shafi’i Sheikh members in 2018, Britain had to agree with Washington to deport them to them to execute them; Because the laws of the Kingdom will give them prison years after which they will come out to mix with society, which was what Britain feared.

With the disclosure of the compatibility between London and Washington regarding this matter, the United Kingdom has become facing a great challenge to reconcile its laws in proportion to the seriousness of the event, as the international terrorism index 2019 issued by the Institute of Economics and Peace in Australia revealed that Britain is the first European country in the percentages of targeting of terrorists, and it is classified One of the first 30 countries around the world through the rates of terrorism victims annually, maintaining an annual increase in the rate of extremist attacks.

In a previous statement to the “reference”, Brigadier Khaled Okasha, Director of the National Center for Security Studies and a member of the Supreme Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism in Egypt, said: “Terrorism issues and the danger they pose to society make the state the sovereign right to define the essence of the risk, and the ways to address it, especially in Cases of terrorists returning from Syria, and their involvement in extremist groups such as ISIS, Al-Nusra Front, and others.