Միացյալ Թագավորության արդարադատության նախարար Դեյվիդ Լամմին կրակոցների տակ է այն բանից հետո, երբ ևս երկու բանտարկյալներ սխալմամբ ազատ են արձակվել

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Britain’s Justice Secretary David Lammy is facing mounting criticism after two prisoners, including a sex offender, were mistakenly released from jail just days after he promised new checks to stop these kinds of errors.

The two mishaps came less than two weeks after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian migrant, was accidentally released from Chelmsford prison. He had arrived in Britain in June on a small boat from France and was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl. He was supposed to be transferred to an immigration detention centre on Oct. 24 in preparation for deportation but was released instead.

Mr. Kebatu was picked up by police in London two days later and deported, but the case sparked public outrage and Mr. Lammy promised immediate changes to the release protocol.

“These are the strongest release checks that have ever been in place. They will apply to every release from custody and are effective immediately,” he told the House of Commons on Oct. 27.

On Wednesday, Mr. Lammy was forced to explain why those checks had not prevented two more accidental releases from London’s Wandsworth prison.

One of the inmates is Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, an Algerian national who overstayed his visa, which expired in 2020, and committed a string of offences, including indecent exposure. He was awaiting trial on theft charges but was let go by mistake on Oct. 29. London’s Metropolitan Police weren’t told about the error until Tuesday and have only just launched a manhunt.

“Cherif has had a six-day head start but we are working urgently to close the gap and establish his whereabouts,” police commander Paul Trevers said in a Wednesday statement.

The second prisoner, William Smith, was released on Monday after appearing in court by video link from Wandsworth for a sentencing hearing. He was sentenced to 45 months for fraud but was set free after prison officials thought he had been given a suspended sentence, which would have meant he no longer had to be held. Mr. Smith turned himself in on Thursday.

On Thursday, Mr. Lammy called the mistakes unacceptable and once again promised changes. “We’re modernizing prison systems – replacing paper with digital tools to cut errors,” he said in a post on X.

Opposition politicians have lambasted Mr. Lammy for refusing to confirm the errors on Wednesday when he was repeatedly asked in the House of Commons whether any more mistaken releases had occurred.

Mr. Lammy said Thursday that while he had been informed of the releases on Wednesday morning, he did not have enough information to comment in the House of Commons at the time. He also said that the recent mistakes occurred before the changes had come into full effect.

Conservative MP Robert Jenrick scoffed at the handling of the situation. “I think it’s a disgrace. It’s a total dereliction of duty,” Mr. Jenrick told the BBC on Thursday.

“Our prisons shouldn’t be relying on an honours system of wrongfully released people handing themselves back into prison,” Liberal Democrat MP Will Forster added, referring to Mr. Smith’s return to prison.

Alex Davies-Jones, Minister for Victims and Violence Against Women and Girls, told the BBC on Thursday that the errors spoke to wider problems in the prison system. “It is totally unacceptable, and I share the fury and frustration,” she said. “This is going to take long-term vision and long-term change, which we are delivering.”

Mistaken releases are not unusual. In the 12-month period ending March 31, 2025, 262 prisoners were released by mistake, according to an annual report from the Ministry of Justice. That was more than double the 115 mistaken releases in the previous year. By contrast there were just 12 prison escapes during the year ending in March, 2025.

The report said the sharp increase in errors partly reflected the impact of an emergency early release program, which was introduced last year to ease overcrowding in jails.

The country’s prisons were close to capacity at the time because of a summer of protests and riots. “If we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order,” then-justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said when announcing the emergency measure.

The scheme allowed some inmates to be released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, instead of the usual 50 per cent. Nearly 40,000 prisoners have been set free as a result of the program and prison officials said the extra processing led to some mistakes. “These offenders were all rearrested and returned to custody,” the ministry said in the annual report, of those mistakenly released through the program.