December 11th – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on the 9th local time that bin Laden spokesman Adel Abdel Barry, convicted of terrorism, has been released from prison and deported to the United Kingdom. British media revealed that Barry’s early release was due to his pathological obesity, which led to “unable to be safely detained during the coronavirus epidemic”.
According to the British Daily Mail on the 10th, Barry, 60 years old, rented an office in London, England, to carry out publicity activities for bin Laden. He was suspected of participating in the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which resulted in 224 deaths.
Barry was arrested in the United Kingdom in 1999 and extradited to the United States in 2012. In the United States, he entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. government, and was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Earlier in 2020, Barry’s lawyer argued that morbid obesity was a “unusual and convincing” reason for his early release. The U.S. judge said that the coronavirus posed a huge risk to Barry’s health given his obesity and asthma, so he agreed to release him “on compassionate grounds”.
British media pointed out that although Barry was born in Egypt, he was granted asylum in Britain in 1991. It is reported that Cameron, a former British Prime Minister, has reached an agreement with the United States to accept Barry’s return to Britain after his release.
Speaking of the matter, a British security source told the media that the return of the terrorist is still a very headache for Home Secretary Patel: “Patel wants Britain to get rid of the threat, but a notorious terrorist is thrown at home like this.”
Barry will almost certainly be asking for benefits in the UK and being put under security surveillance, which would cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds, the source also revealed.
