Government signals end of ‘no-go areas’ inside jails that allowed Arena bomb plotter to form a jihadi gang behind bars

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Jailed terrorists like Arena bomber Hashem Abedi will be prevented from creating 'no-go areas' inside prisons to radicalise others, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said today.

He spoke out after it emerged the Islamic State fanatic was able to lead a violent Islamist gang while behind bars at a high-security 'prison within a prison'. In February, Abedi, jailed for life for helping his suicide bomber brother Salman Abedi murder 22 innocents, and two other jailed terrorists were convicted of attacking a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh in east London in May 2020.

The attack took place in Belmarsh’s High Security Unit (HSU) on May 11, 2020, just a few weeks after Hashem Abedi had been convicted over the May 2017 attack at the arena, which left 22 dead and a thousand others injured. Today (Wednesday) Justice Secretary Dominic Raab signalled a new push to stop inmates spreading poison and creating breeding grounds for terrorists as he announced a £1.2m plan to separate the most dangerous inmates from the the main prison population.

READ MORE: Hashem Abedi says he 'will be leaving jail very soon' as he's caught smiling seconds before attack

Mr Raab admitted the challenge posed by Islamist prisoners had been under-estimated and that more robust approach was needed to deal with the 200 serving terrorist offenders and another 200 extremists with other convictions currently behind bars.

“We must not allow religious or cultural sensitives to deter us from clamping down and nipping in the bud early the precursor signs of radicalisation and ultimately terrorist recruitment. That must be stopped,” Mr Raab told LBC on Wednesday.

He added: "We start with the understandable respect for religious observance, we then find kitchens are