UK may segregate Muslim prisoners

Daily Mail:

Ministers are secretly considering plans for an all-Muslim prison after a series of attacks on jailed Islamic terrorists, it is claimed.

The prison could house the growing number of Muslim extremist inmates, it is said, after increasing signs of tension at the jails in which they are housed.

But critics said terrorists must not given the appearance of special status within the justice system.

On Sunday, a fire was started in the cell housing Hussein Osman, in Frankland high security prison in County Durham.

Osman was jailed this year for his role in the July 21 bomb plot. He tried to repeat the July 7 carnage by attempting to blow up a train at Shepherd's Bush, West London, in 2005.

Nobody was hurt in the cell fire, which is under investigation, but officials believe it may have been an attempt on his life.

It was the third incident in three weeks involving convicted Islamic terrorists at the prison.

Earlier this month Dhiren Barot, 34, an Al Qaeda plotter jailed for life last year, was seriously burned when he was scalded with boiling water.

There are also said to have been death threats against 25-year-old Omar Khyam, who was convicted for masterminding the fertiliser bomb plot and is also serving life for conspiracy to murder.

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Last week the controversial solicitor Mudassar Arani, whose firm has been paid more than £1million in legal aid to represent extremists, said her clients feel it is unfair that they must undergo frequent searches and curbs on meeting other imprisoned radicals.

Miss Arani, who claimed she was speaking on behalf of Barot, said: "Why should he suffer? Isn't it bad enough to have to serve your sentence? Why does he have to be placed in segregation? He asked me to mention prisoner of war status."

But Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army commander, said: "They are not soldiers, they are not warriors. They have simply broken the law."

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This is one of those good news bad news stories. The good news is that there are actually some people in the UK who want to destroy the terrorist. The bad news is that they are among the few criminals in the UK who are actual in prison.

The Tory MP and the lawyer are both wrong. These men are unlawful combatants not entitled to the protection of POW status. They should be sent to a facility like Gitmo for the duration of the conflict.