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‘My Goal is to Be a Martyr’: What Do We Know About Sudesh Amman, the Streatham Attacker

© REUTERS / TOBY MELVILLEPolice forensic officers work near the site where a man was shot by armed officers in Streatham, south London, Britain, February 3, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Police forensic officers work near the site where a man was shot by armed officers in Streatham, south London, Britain, February 3, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville - Sputnik International
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Detectives investigating a knife attack on shoppers in a south London street on Sunday have searched two houses overnight. Social media users have reacted with horror to the news that the attacker, Sudesh Amman, was released from prison only a week ago.

A terrorist who was shot dead by police in Streatham, south London, on Sunday, had been freed from jail earlier this month, it has emerged.

Sudesh Amman, 20, was convicted of sharing terrorist material in December 2018 and was jailed for three years but was released after serving half his sentence.

The jury at his trial heard that Amman had written in a notebook that it was his “goal” to be a martyr for Daesh*.

​In online chats Amman told his girlfriend how he hated “kuffars” (non-believers) and wanted to carry out a terrorist attack. He even told his girlfriend she should behead her own “kuffar parents.”

Forensic specialists recovered 349,000 media files from his digital devices, including manuals on knife-fighting, bomb-making and combat techniques.

​Amman was originally from Harrow in north London but was staying at a bail hostel in Streatham at the time of the attack.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi said: “Armed officers, who were part of a proactive counter-terrorism surveillance operation and were following the suspect on foot, were in immediate attendance and shot a male suspect dead at the scene.”

She said the officers saw a device was strapped to his body and called in specialist explosives officers and additional armed officers to deal with the potential threat.

Cordons were put in place and it was quickly established it was a hoax device.

Three people had been stabbed - a man in his 40s, a woman in her 50s and another woman who was in her late 20s. None of them are in a life-threatening condition.

Sudesh Amman was 17 when he first came to the police’s attention.

He was living at home with his mother and four younger siblings.

They were tipped off about him by a Dutch blogger, who noticed him on the encrypted Telegram app, where he used the moniker @strangertothisworld.

​Amman posted al-Qaeda* propaganda on a WhatsApp group which was seen by children as young as 11. He also shared bomb-making literature on Skype.

On 12 December 2017 he posted an image of then Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on the WhatsApp group and told his brother Daesh was “everywhere” and “can never die.”

Amman said that because Yazidi women in northern Iraq were “slaves” it was permissible to rape them, according to the Koran.

He was charged in May 2018 with offences contrary to the Terrorism Act and pleaded guilty to three charges and was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment.

​Amman was released in January 2020 having served 13 months in jail plus seven months on remand.

But he still believed in the extremist Islamist ideology and perpetrated the attack, knowing he would become a “martyr”.

The incident, coming only two months after another terrorist released from prison carried out the London Bridge attack, will focus even more attention on the government’s law and order policies.

*Daesh (aka IS/ISIS/Islamic State) and al Qaeda are terror groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

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