by
Soeren Kern • October 12, 2018 at 5:00 am
- The
group — which Spain's Interior Ministry described as a jihadi
"Prisons Front" ("frente de cárceles")
— was engaged in recruiting, indoctrinating and radicalizing other
inmates, as well as in plotting new jihadi attacks.
- "We
want to prepare ourselves for the jihad for Allah. I have good
news: I have created a new group, we are willing to die for Allah
at any moment. We are waiting to be released from prison so that
we can begin working. We have men, we have weapons and we have
targets. All we need is practice." — Mohamed Achraf, in a
letter written from prison to another inmate.
- "The
majority of the individuals being investigated, far from being
deradicalized, have not only remained active in jihadi militancy,
but have become even more radical during their
incarceration." — Spanish Interior Ministry.
On October 1, Spanish counterterrorism
police searched Mohamed Achraf's prison cell in Campos del Río
penitentiary in Murcia and discovered that he was running a
"disciplined and organized" network of jihadi inmates
dedicated to recruiting and radicalizing other inmates, as well as to
plotting attacks against specific targets. (Image source: Spanish
Interior Ministry)
Spanish police have dismantled a jihadi network
operating inside and across more than a dozen Spanish prisons. The
network, allegedly linked to the Islamic State, was established and
operated by one of the most implacable jihadis in the Spanish prison
system — apparently under the noses of prison authorities.
The network's existence has called into question not
only the effectiveness of security procedures in Spanish prisons, but
also of Spanish "deradicalization" programs, which are aimed
at "rehabilitating" Islamic militants for eventual
"reinsertion" into society.
The group's core members included 25 jihadis in 17
different prisons (accounting for more than half of the 30 Spanish
prisons equipped to house jihadi convicts), according to the Interior
Ministry, which provided details of the counterterrorism operation on
October 2.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment