Boris Johnson today defended the Met over blunders which allowed terror suspect Siddhartha Dhar to flee Britain while on police bail.
The Mayor said the force had to deal with “very, very uppity lawyers” who monitored their clients’ rights to the extent that the police could not “follow them back to the house” or “be oppressive”.
Former bouncy castle salesman Dhar, believed by some to be the new “Jihadi John”, mocked the authorities from Syria after being able to leave in 2014 with his family despite being arrested six times for alleged terror offences.
Scotland Yard has been criticised after it emerged police asked him to phone them and surrender his passport six weeks after he fled to join IS, with officers waiting a month before checking why he had failed to comply.
They then wrote him a polite letter asking “could you please contact the police on the telephone number listed above”.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, has also written to the UK’s head of counter terrorism Mark Rowley over the blunders and said he would raise it with David Cameron.
But speaking on BBC Radio London today, Mr Johnson said the Met had to deal with a “pretty ineffective” bail system which posed various restrictions under human rights law which hampered their ability to keep an eye on suspects.
He said it was time to stop “monkeying around”, adding: “Let’s not say stuff their human rights because that’s obviously not the way we do things in this country, but let’s be pretty robust in our approach.”
Dhar, who is suspected of being the main protagonist in a new Islamic State propaganda video released on Sunday, was today reported to have been a close associate and “mentor” of one of Lee Rigby’s killers, Michael Adebolajo.
The disturbing video is also believed to feature a son of Grace “Khadijah” Dare - the 24-year-old Muslim convert from Lewisham who fled to Syria.
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