Britain’s most notorious hate preacher has been moved to a prison unit created for inmates who pose a national security threat from behind bars, The Sunday Times can reveal.
Anjem Choudary, who was jailed for 5½ years in September last year for urging Muslims to support the terrorist group Isis, has become the first known Islamist to be moved to a “separation centre” at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in County Durham.
Choudary was moved to the centre after he refused to stop preaching his extremist views despite being warned by prison authorities.
Frankland’s separation centre is the first of three in high security units. The other two are Woodhill, in Milton Keynes, which is expected to open in September, and Full Sutton, in Yorkshire.
Ian Acheson, who conducted the government’s review into prison extremism, said separating “subversive hate preachers from their audience is a necessary step to prevent the spread of Islamist extremism”.
But he added: “The possibility of hope and change is important, not just as a moral abstraction but because it will keep staff and prisoners safer.”
The Ministry of Justice refused to identify prisoners in Frankland’s separation centre.