Islamist extremists hold Sharia trials and groom young Muslims in British prisons

From the Times, The Daily Mail the Daily Star and The Sun

ISLAMIST extremists are holding Sharia trials in British prisons and grooming young Muslim inmates, a probe found. Punishment beatings have been dished out and banned books have circulated, prompting security experts to seek a review of terrorist radicalisation in jails.

An ex-prisoner claimed he took part in punishment beatings and Sharia courts with a group of prisoners who pledged allegiance to Isis.

Last night security experts called for an urgent review into radicalisation in British jails.

A former prisoner, who spoke to The Times, said he was recruited at HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes, by a group which included a follower of the hate preacher Anjem Choudary and claimed that he had access to recordings of talks by the al-Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki.

The ex-prisoner, who is in his 20s and used the pseudonym Jack, said his former inmates have contacted him offering to help him travel to Syria. He said it was by a group which included a follower of the hate preacher Anjem Choudary and claimed that he had access to recordings of talks by the al-Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki. The other hardliners were inmates who had been converted in prison and had histories of violent offending.

The man, who is in his 20s and free on licence, said he found himself sitting in judgment at a cell-block court over two other prisoners who had supposedly disrespected Islam by drinking alcohol. He said that one of the men in the room, Brusthom Ziamani, 24, who was jailed in 2015 for plotting to behead a British army cadet, called for a punishment beating, which then took place.

A description of the sharia trial follows

In a prison cell at HMP Woodhill, the walls of which were lined with religious posters and family photographs, Brusthom Ziamani, 24, a jailed terrorist, and another prisoner, a convicted murderer, sat with two young inmates. Another man, then aged 24 and who will be referred to by the pseudonym Jack, arrived at the door and squeezed into the cramped room. The murderer, a broad, muscular man we have called M, greeted Jack with a bear hug and instructed him to stand beside Ziamani.

These three converts to a warped and extremist brand of Islam had formed a self-styled Sharia court to sit in judgment on the two other prisoners sitting cross-legged on the floor.

The accused were made to stand and announce their names before M told them they had been brought before his court for “disgracing the month of Ramadan”. He said: “You were caught drinking alcohol yesterday evening by the brothers. Due to the overwhelming evidence against you, we find you guilty despite your pleas of innocence.”

M sat for a moment, read an extract from the Koran and stood again. “The brothers will decide your punishment. A hundred lashes or a beating?”

Ziamani abruptly called for a beating. Jack agreed and the two “guilty” men were punched and kicked until “the smaller one couldn’t open his eye, it was swollen completely shut, so we made him tell the screws he had fallen down the stairs”.

He also told how he fell in with extremists after being approached by the “overbearing” self-appointed prison “emir” as he waited in the chaplaincy department for Friday prayers to begin. 

Jack claimed that Ziamani would “patrol” their block to make sure that nobody was breaking fasting rules during Ramadan. Ziamani had, in his own words, appointed himself “chief of the Sharia police”.

Others Jack said he met at Woodhill included Forhad Rahman, who was jailed for funding acts of terror, and Mohammad Saud, 29, jailed for conspiring to commit a terror attack. He also met Khobaib Hussain, one of the “three musketeers” who plotted to behead a soldier.

It was the start of a three-month-long radicalisation process which, Jack claims, included private lessons, in-cell Sharia courts and taxing prison drug dealers. 

The lessons began with M telling Ziamani and Jack to take notes. M lectured them about how the Queen was a false monarch and an enemy of Islam who should be fought to the death. “Allah is the only monarch,” he declared.

From a cardboard box filled with papers and photographs, M allegedly offered Jack a copy of the book Milestones by the Egyptian Islamic scholar Sayyid Qutb. M explained that the book was banned in jail because it was “the inspiration for the 9/11 attacks”.

One evening in July 2016 Jack was in his cell when Ziamani began pounding the wall and telling him to turn on his television. The Nice attacks had just occurred and Ziamani was celebrating. Jack said that he felt sickened.The following morning Ziamani arrived at his cell with a bag of Haribo to celebrate the news that Isis had killed 86 “non-believers”.

Prison officials began to realise that Jack was being groomed by the cell block radicals. “A prison officer approached me and told me that I was making the wrong friends and the wrong people had noticed,” he said. He was transferred out of Woodhill and moved several more times before his eventual release. Jack is now out of prison on licence. He says that he has retained his faith in Islam but has rejected the extremism that tempted him while in prison.

Richard Walton, former head of Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command, and Ian Acheson, who led a previous review of jail extremism, said that reforms to tackle the problem had stalled and the ability of the Prison Service to deal with it was in question. Professor Acheson’s 2016 report described Islamist extremism in jails as a “growing problem” and outlined measures to counter it. His ideas have met with resistance, however.

Mr Walton said “Regrettably, it is not uncommon for covert counterterrorism investigations to start within prisons — they provide a conducive environment for the most hardline convicted Islamists to plot and conspire.”

The number of prisoners describing themselves as Muslim has increased significantly in the past 20 years. This year there were 13,000 Muslim inmates in England and Wales, making up 16 per cent of the prison population. 

There is, or was, a power struggle between followers of Islamic State and those who favoured Al Qaeda. 

Brusthom Ziamani, 24, defected from a group at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes who supported Islamic State to join prisoners supporting al-Qaeda. The Isis group was said to have been led by Simeon Nicholls, 29, who allegedly said: “Woodhill is an Islamic State prison and AQ are not welcome here.”