The PM could is hoping to suspend the European Convention on Human Rights but is facing a legal battle from Labour’s Shami Chakrabarti and activists (Picture: PA/Getty)

Boris Johnson is facing a lengthy legal battle to force through emergency terrorist sentencing laws, which would see him tearing up key human rights legislation.

In the wake of the Streatham attack on Sunday, the PM is hoping to overhaul the system to stop terrorists being automatically freed halfway through their sentence and keep them behind bars for longer.

The Government is said to be considering suspending the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to pass through the new strict measures.

Human and civil rights group Liberty has branded the move ‘dangerous’, while Labour’s shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti and top lawyers are gearing up to challenge plans.




Sudesh Amman, who knifed two people on Streatham high street, had been released midway through his sentence (Picture: PA)

Usman Khan, who had also been released midway through his jail time, killed two people on London Bridge (Picture: PA)

This week the government is set to publish the updated legislation, which would apply to at least 220 terrorists retrospectively – something lawyers have argued will cause a huge backlog in the courts.

However, the ECHR contains ruling regarding retrospective legislation, which will serve as the basis to contest Mr Johnson’s proposed laws.

It has also been argued the new laws could backfire as it risks offenders being released into the public with no surveillance.

If the suspension of the ECHR is successfully challenged, this could then lead to the government temporarily withdrawing the UK from the treaty.

Although the UK has now left the EU, the ECHR is a separate treaty which gives the 47 European countries involved the option to derogate ‘in time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation’.

Shami Chakrabarti, shadow U.K. attorney general, is set to challenge the PM’s emergency laws (Picture: Bloomberg)

As part of the system overhaul, the government may update the UK’s Human Rights Act and allow the option for terrorists to stay behind bars even after serving their full sentence, according to The Sun.

Sources said other areas that could be changed include the safeguarding acts Right to Life and Right to Family Life.

The emergency laws come after Sudesh Amman was shot dead by police after stabbing two people on Streatham high street, south London, while wearing a fake suicide vest.

Amman, who was convicted in December 2018, had been automatically released half way into his sentence and had been under surveillance in a bail hostel in the area.

Mr Johnson is hoping to push through the laws within the next 10 days (Picture: AFP)

Amman was shot dead by police on Streatham high street

Usman Khan, who killed two people after going on a stabbing rampage on London Bridge in November, had also been released midway through his sentence.

Under current laws, certain terrorists can go before the parole board after serving as little as half of their sentences depending on their offence and behaviour behind bars.

If they are freed, they are placed in a transition period under police scrutiny while they re-adjust from prison life back into the public.

Law Society of England and Wales president Simon Davis said yesterday that if the licence period is instead spent in custody we risk releasing inmates without any transition and without any opportunity for the probation service to recall them to prison if there are concerns about their post-release behaviour’.

He added that if the rules are now changed mid-sentence for some prisoners, there is a greater chance they will appeal and ‘further clogging up an already overloaded system.’

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