The British man who held four hostages in a synagogue in the US had been targeted by the British intelligence service (MI5) in 2020, which then concluded that he was not a threat, according to many British media.
Reports, citing government sources, say information that reached MI5 in the second half of 2020 led to the launch of an investigation into Malik Faisal Akram. The investigation closed about a month later. Her conclusion was that “there was no evidence” to suggest that she was a threat at the time, writes The Telegraph.
The 44-year-old Briton has been identified by the FBI as the perpetrator of the attack on the Coleville Synagogue, a town of 23,000 near Dallas, Texas. Akram was killed when police intervened, and the four hostages were not harmed.
According to Sky News, Akram lived in Blackburn, northern England. He arrived in the United States shortly before New Year’s Eve at New York’s JFK Airport and then bought the weapon he used in the synagogue attack. He was imprisoned four times between 1996-2012, mainly for disorderly conduct, harassment and theft.
The counterterrorism agency announced earlier that the two teenagers who were arrested on Sunday in the south of Manchester were released as part of its investigation into the case.
U.S. media reports say Akram was seeking the release of Afia Sindiki, a Pakistani scientist who was sentenced in 2010 by a federal court in New York to 86 years in prison for trying to shoot American soldiers while she was being held in Afghanistan.
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