From Jihadist to Advocate: The Journey of a Former Extremist

Can extremists be de-radicalised? For Assignment, Adrian Goldberg, hears from the ‘intervention providers’ in the United Kingdom tasked with turning offenders away from violence. Usman Khan was released from prison in 2018 for plotting a terror attack. He’d undertaken two de-radicalisation programmes designed to turn him away from violent extremism. Yet despite efforts to rehabilitate him, Khan launched an attack near London Bridge, in the capital, killing two people – one of them was Jack Merritt. It was the first of two violent attacks involving convicted extremists in the space of two months. So just how effective are these schemes designed to de-radicalise extremists? We hear from closely people involved in them. Some say offenders can cheat the system and convince the authorities they’ve changed their ways. A serving prisoner in a maximum security jail tells Adrian that convicted terrorists are ‘gaming’ the system by pretending to comply and he warns that non terrorist offenders are being dangerously radicalised.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Researcher: Luke Radcliff Producer, Helen Clifton Editor: Carl Johnston

(Photo: Jack Merritt courtesy of the Merritt family)