Keeping Black Country mosque bomber in jail could cost £1.1m
Keeping a Black Country mosque bomber in jail could cost UK taxpayers around £1.1 million, it has emerged, leading to calls for him to be deported.
Pavlo Lapshyn was only in the country for five days before launching a 90-day terror campaign.
He stabbed Mohammed Saleem three times in the back as he left his mosque in Birmingham before going on to plant three bombs outside mosques in Wolverhampton, Tipton and Walsall.
Warley MP John Spellar is now asking ministers if Lapshyn will be transferred back to his native Ukraine, so taxpayers do not suffer insult to the injury his actions caused Black Country communities by having to cover his jail costs too.
Immigration minister Mark Harper has confirmed there is a deportation agreement between his homeland and the UK for prisoners sentenced to serve more than 12 months.
Mr Spellar is now asking the minister if Lapshyn will be subject to that agreement.
He said: "I have asked the minister to make it clear in the House of Commons that that arrangement exists, which he has. I now want to know if Lapshyn will be deported. I would far prefer the taxpayer did not have to face the bill for his incarceration."
Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South West, echoed his sentiments, adding: "I completely concur with Mr Spellar. I think people would see that as common sense and the mechanism is in place to do it."
Latest figures from the Ministry of Justice say the average cost of keeping a prisoner in a category B jail is £29,092 a year. Based on those figures alone, it would cost more than £1.1 million to keep Lapshyn in a UK jail for 40 years.
On the prisoner transfer agreement, Mr Harper MP confirmed: "Foreign national offenders who are from Ukraine will be considered for deportation if they meet the following criteria: a custodial sentence of 12 months or more either in one sentence or as an aggregate of two or three sentences over a period of five years, or a custodial sentence of any length for a drug offence (other than possession); or a court recommendation (only for those over 17 years of age)."
The self-styled terrorist had said he had planted the bombs because he wanted to 'increase racial hatred'.
Assistant chief constable Marcus Beale, who is responsible for counter terrorism at West Midlands Police, then branded Lapshyn as cold and callous.
