HMP SHARIA Convicted terrorists setting up Sharia courts in jails and flogging inmates who flout their strict Muslim code

From the Sun

CONVICTED terrorists are setting up Sharia courts in jails and flogging inmates who flout their strict Muslim code, a report says.

Anti-terror czar Sir Jonathan Hall said lags at jails including Belmarsh and Whitemoor are using their “celebrity” status to try to take over prison wings.

He said the “charismatic . . . self-styled emirs” exert a “controlling and radicalising influence on the wider Muslim prison population”. Their “enforcers” order lags to do “menial tasks” like cleaning cells. Prisoners are excluded from showers and kitchens unless they stick to a halal diet.

Vulnerable prisoners are groomed with gifts in the hope of spreading terror and hate when they are finally released.

Attempts are made to “engineer segregation” between Muslim and non-Muslim lags — and ban staff from attending Friday prayers.

He said extremists seek to impose a hardline Muslim code which includes “the use of Sharia courts and punishment, including flogging”.

Bogus racism, mistreatment and Islamophobia claims are made against jail staff to “delegitimise” their authority. Intimidated employees often defer to the so-called emirs to maintain “good order”.

Sir Jonathan was asked to look into jail extremism after a series of attacks by convicted terrorists. He said “For the last decade and a half, groups of prisoners  . . . have adopted an anti-State Islamist stance that condones or encourages violence towards non-Muslim prisoners, prison officers and the general public.” He recommended beefing up teams to spot signs of terrorism and creating a law to make committing a terror offence inside jail a specific crime.

He cited intelligence supports of how the London Bridge killer Usman Khan and Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman radicalised or tried to convert fellow prisoners, intimidated staff and threatened to murder prison officers.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab promised to crack down on terrorists “poisoning the well” in prisons. Terrorists in prison are to lose their human rights to socialise as (he) expands the use of segregated “jails within jails” to prevent dangerous offenders from radicalising other inmates.

The Justice Secretary is to use his new UK Bill of Rights to prevent terrorists and hate preachers using “trivial” and “elastic” claims under human rights laws to block their transfer to “separation” units, where they will be isolated from other prisoners.

There are three units at the high-security jails HMP Frankland in Durham, Full Sutton near York and Woodhill in Milton Keynes, with places for 30 convicted terrorists. But only 10 are currently held in them, including Hashem Abedi, jailed for the Manchester Arena attack in which 23 people died. The units have been underused because of claims by inmates’ lawyers that transfer to them would breach their Article 11 rights to freedom of association and Article 8 rights to a family and private life.

Mr Raab said: “The threat from terrorism is evolving, so our response must adapt. We are going to take a more decisive approach in our prisons, not allowing cultural and religious sensitivities to deter us from nipping in the bud early signs of terrorist risk. We will isolate more of the most radical terrorists in separation centres, and our Bill of Rights will prevent terrorists using the Human Rights Act to claim a ‘right to socialise’ in prison.”

Their placement in the centres will only be reviewed every two years, as opposed to the current three months, which means they could spend longer within them.

A crack Ministry of Justice (MoJ) “squad” including lawyers will be set up to identify and refer more terrorists and hate preachers to the units, backed with £1.2 million in funding. Referrals to the “jails within jails” will be streamlined to be quicker and simpler.  I hope they got some ‘crack’ officers in house and not the woke and woolly diversity assortment I left behind in 2008. 

“We want to make it easier for governors to put these dangerous predators in separation centres to stop them recruiting more terrorist foot soldiers and minimise the risk of trivial legal challenges based on procedural complexities,” said the MoJ.

Other reforms were recommended by Jonathan Hall, QC include new offences to target acts of terrorism committed in jails in England and Wales that are going unpunished at present.

These will make it easier to prosecute prisoners who radicalise fellow inmates, adorn their cells with terrorist posters or attack prison guards rather than treat them as disciplinary offences.

Possession of radical material, preaching extremism and inciting violence are likely to be among the offences targeted under new legislation expected to be introduced within the next year.