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New policies to prevent radicalisation in prisons

11:38 13/01/2015

Belgian justice minister Koen Geens has announced new measures aimed at preventing jailed extremists from converting other prisoners to their cause. The announcement comes in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris last week that sent shock waves across Europe. It emerged that the terrorists responsible for the attacks, which left 17 dead, were radicalised while serving prison terms.

The new measures mean that extremist prisoners in Belgium will be carefully assessed before they are sent to a particular facility. The process will give a greater role to Islamic consultants. “We hardly have any contact with the consultants at the moment,” said Geens (pictured), “but the idea is to give them a crucial role in the process.” 

The government faces a tough choice in placing extremists in prison cells, with some arguing for concentrating extremists in one place and others saying that it is better to spread them between different prisons. Opponents of concentration say that it could lead to the formation of radical cells, while critics of dispersal argue that it could result in more prisoners being radicalised.

“It’s clear that we aren’t going to lock up charismatic figures, like the French-Algerian terrorist Djamel Beghal, in the same jail as young Islamic prisoners,” Geens said.

The minister also wants to introduce new measures to allow the tapping of phones belonging to extremists who “encourage, incite or provoke terrorism”. While this is already widespread in other countries, it is banned in Belgium because of legislation protecting personal privacy. Geens hopes to get parliament’s approval for the new measure tomorrow.

 

photo courtesy CDS Gent

Written by Derek Blyth