Maximum security Belmarsh prison is 'like a jihadi training camp,' says former inmate

Source: [link to www.standard.co.uk]
A maximum-security prison in London has become “like a jihadi training camp”, according to shocking testimony from a former inmate.

The whistleblower said that a terrifying group of jihadists at Belmarsh, who call themselves “the Brothers”, or “the Akhi” (Arabic for brother), appear to “almost have the run of the prison”.

Our witness, a Muslim university graduate who has recently been released from a sentence for bank fraud, said that “governors, prison officers and imams all know about this”.

Speaking exclusively to the Evening Standard, he said that Belmarsh, where many convicted terrorists and terror-related offenders mix freely with ordinary prisoners, was “the worst”.

He added: “But the problem is that Belmarsh is also a holding prison and so young people who are brainwashed and indoctrinated then go out into the wider prison system and create wider Akhi networks.”

The revelations came in the wake of yesterday’s damning Justice Select Committee report that revealed a huge increase in suicides, violent assaults and disorder across the prison network.

They also came ahead of tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech, when the Government is expected to unveil new measures to crack down on extremism as well as wider reforms of the prison system.

The number of prisoners in Belmarsh held for terrorism or terror-related offences was 51 in 2006. Today’s figure is estimated to be at least 80, although the Ministry of Justice refused to confirm this, saying: “We do not know the exact number.”