Adel Abdel-Bary, 60, won early release on health grounds as he feared his life was at risk from COVID-19 because of his morbid obesity. Prison records revealed he weighs more than 16st and suffers from asthma. The Egyptian, who helped plot sickening terror attacks which killed more than 220 people at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, walked out of a New Jersey prison on Tuesday and flew to the UK to be reunited with wife Ragaa, 59, who lives in a council flat in Maida Vale, northwest London.
The father-of-six, who was known as bin Laden’s spokesman in Europe, is entitled to live in Britain after being granted asylum in 1997.
The law states he cannot be sent back to Egypt because he could be at risk of death or torture in his home country, which he fled for the UK in 1991.
Security sources told The Sun: “His return remains a huge headache for the Home Secretary.
“She is intent on ridding the country of threats, but here’s a notorious terrorist dumped right on her doorstep.”
Abdel-Bary was extradited to the US in 2012 and jailed for 25 years after admitting his role in two al-Qaeda truck bombings which killed 224 people at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
He pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiring to kill Americans and to charges related to making threats.
He was originally charged with 285 offences but admitted just a handful, including threatening to kill by means of explosives and conspiracy to murder US citizens abroad.
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Abdel-Bary, who rented premises in London’s Kilburn Lane for bin Laden’s propaganda activities, had 16 years taken off due to the time he had spent on remand ahead of his extradition.
During his trial in the US, prosecutors said Abdel-Bary had been a trusted senior member of the London cell of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a group led by Ayman al-Zawahiri that merged with bin Laden’s bloodthirsty al-Qaeda terror network.
They said after the 1998 bombings he sent faxes to media outlets claiming responsibility for the atrocities and warning of future attacks.
The UK security sources said Abdel-Bary will almost certainly be claiming benefits now he is back in the UK.
They said he would also be the subject of round-the-clock security monitoring which means his return to Britain will cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds.