Prosecutors today revealed that up to 26 jailed criminals have had their sentences secretly cut under “supergrass” deals as the row over the release of shoebomb terrorist plotter Saajid Badat intensified.
Figures from the Crown Prosecution Service also show that 18 criminal suspects have been given full or partial immunity from prosecution in return for tip-offs about fellow offenders. Another 114 have pleaded guilty after being told that the punishment imposed by the court would be cut in response.
The disclosures about supergrass deals follow the announcement that former teacher Badat, 33, jailed for conspiring to blow up a transatlantic airliner with a shoebomb, has been secretly freed after agreeing to give evidence at the trial of an alleged al Qaeda plotter in New York.
Under the terms of the agreement, Badat was given two years off his original 13-year jail term, imposed in 2005, meaning he was released last year, rather than later this year.
Prosecutors and police have defended the use of the supergrass deal but MPs expressed disquiet and warned that “secret justice” risked denying the public important information about the fate of terrorist convicts.
