London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan given £350,000 in legal aid over gang plot to bomb Stock Exchange
LONDON Bridge terrorist Usman Khan was given more than £350,000 in legal aid to be represented for being part of a group that plotted to bomb the city’s stock exchange.
The fanatic, 28, was specifically given £12,000 of taxpayers’ cash to appeal his sentence - allowing him to be free on licence from prison when he carried out the horrific attack.
Khan killed two people and injured three others before being shot dead by armed cops in November last year.
In 2012 Khan was sentenced to indeterminate detention with a minimum jail term of eight years after pleading guilty to preparing terrorist acts - which included him wanting to establish a terrorist military training camp in Pakistan.
The Sun on Sunday can reveal that the monster was handed £341,460 for being represented at court - £217,324 for a barrister and £124,136 for a solicitor.
In 2013 the Court of Appeal controversially quashed Khan’s sentence - replacing it with a 16-year-fixed term of which half of which was to be served in prison.
He was given £12,000 in legal aid to successfully appeal. He was also handed £2,100 for a judicial review.
Six years later he went on to commit the horrific attack in which he killed Cambridge University graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23.
OUTRAGE
Mid Derbyshire Tory MP Pauline Latham slammed the handout.
She said: “That’s a huge sum of money. It’s very shocking.
“The appeal should never have been allowed to succeed. He shouldn’t have been allowed out.
“For him then to have all of this funded by the taxpayer is a disgrace.
“He was obviously laughing in the face of justice.”
Despite the massive payouts to Khan the victims of terrorist attacks have had legal aid denied.
Families of the victims killed in the 2017 London Bridge attack were told it was not in the public interest for them to receive the funding.
'NOT FAIR'
But government agencies used public cash to hire top legal teams to represent their interests in court.
Mrs Latham added: “It’s not fair. There’s one rule for the grieving families of the victims and then for someone like Khan.
“It’s totally wrong.”
Khan carried out the attack at a prisoner rehabilitation event at Fishmongers’ Hall, central London.
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Armed with two knives and wearing a fake suicide vest, Khan was tackled by members of the public, including ex-offenders from the conference, before he was shot dead by police.
Khan had been an attendee at the fifth anniversary event for the Learning Together programme, which aims to help prisoners with their rehabilitation.
Mr Merritt was a co-ordinator of Learning Together while Ms Jones was among the volunteers.
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