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UK: Attacks on Muslim prisoners

01 October 2007

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A campaign of threats and attacks on Muslim prisoners has resulted in a serious assault on Esa (Dhiren) Barot at HMP Frankland. Esa was physically assaulted and suffered serious burn injuries after having boiling water poured on him. Threats have also been made against Hussein Usman, and Omar Khyam is in self-imposed isolation for his own protection. The Prison Service response to the attack on Esa was to refuse to relocate him on the basis that HMP Frankland remained the jail best suited to his safety and the safety of others. There are also rumours of floating contracts being taken out on some Muslim prisoners, including Andrew Rowe.

Alongside this, prisoners are regularly ghosted around the dispersal system - purportedly to "curb their influence". Baber Ahmed has been moved from Woodhill to Belmarsh and then to Manchester, while Abu Qatada has been ghosted from Belmarsh, to Full Sutton, to Frankland and is at present at HMP Long Lartin. The notion of "political influence" and the reported "fear of radicalisation" of other inmates is a smokescreen for the fact that the Prison Service is aware that where prisoners have been threatened in jails where there were substantial numbers of Muslim prisoners, they have been able to organise for their own protection and co-ordinate a unified complaint to the prison authorities.

A number of groups - including Cageprisoners and the Islamic Human Rights Committee, along with solicitors for some of the prisoners, have come together to co-ordinate pressure on the Prison Service to meet their duty to protect Muslim prisoners, and discuss ways of organising to protect them, collect information about their conditions and publicise their concerns.

For more information, contact: Cageprisoners PO Box 45789, London SW16 4XS, contact@cageprisoners.com; http:// www.cageprisoners.com; Eesa Dhiren Barot, Omar Khyam, Hussein Usman, Andrew Rowe, HMP Frankland, Brasside, Durham DH1 5YD; Omar Otham (Abu Qatada) MX8756, HMP Long Lartin, Evesham, Worcs WR11 8TZ; Babar Ahmed MX5383, HMP Manchester, Southall, Manchester M60 9AH

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