Convicted terrorists in jailhouse recruitment drive
Imprisoned terrorists are trying to recruit other inmates to their cause, raising fears newly radicalised crooks could carry out lone wolf attacks after their release.
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Convicted terrorists are radicalising fellow inmates behind the bars of one of the state’s maximum security prisons.
It has led to fears violent prisoners with no known extremist beliefs could carry out lone wolf terror attacks once they are released on the streets of Melbourne.
The Herald Sun has been told Ahmed Mohamed and Abdullah Chaarani, who were convicted of plotting an evil terror attack around Federation Square, have tried to recruit at least a dozen fellow inmates to their sick ideology at Port Phillip Prison in recent months.
The prisoners the terrorists have targeted have been locked up for a range of violent offences.
One of them is an armed robber serving years in jail for multiple offences, including robbing his drug dealer with a sawn-off shotgun and using a tomahawk to rob a video store.
Another is a thug who pleaded guilty to armed robbery and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
He used a silver imitation handgun while robbing a 7-Eleven alongside an accomplice who was wielding a large machete in Melbourne’s north in 2017.
And a violent rapist who was sentenced to 19 years in jail in 2018 is another believed to have also been approached by the jailed jihadis.
Chaarani and Mohamed were part of a terror cell that had planned to slaughter innocent Melburnians at St Paul’s Cathedral and Flinders Street Station. They were arrested three days before Christmas in 2016.
MP David Southwick, the opposition’s police and corrections spokesman, said authorities need to do more to stamp out radicalisation behind bars.
“Victoria’s prisons are not just universities of crime but now becoming universities of terror,” he said.
“It’s concerning that these inmates will leave prison radicalised and may escape any terrorist watch list and threaten innocent Victorians and our way of life”.
Chaarani and Mohamed, who became radicalised after watching IS videos online, were sentenced to 38 years in prison.
They planned to kill people using machetes, guns and improvised explosive vests.
Police foiled the plot after intercepting the group’s text messages and emails.
Mohamed told the court he thought a bombing attack would be “cool”. Mohamed will be eligible for parole when he is 52-years-old while Chaarani will be 54.
A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesman said: “Corrections Victoria works closely with state and federal authorities to reduce the risk of radicalisation in the prison system and in the broader community.
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“A range of programs and interventions are available to both sentenced prisoners and those on remand, to encourage them to confront their extremist ideologies.”
Prison staff encourage inmates with radicalised views to break away from extremism with social programs and support.
“Federally endorsed training programs to assist staff in the identification and management of radical and extremist behaviour are also made available to Corrections Victoria staff,” the Corrections Victoria spokesman said.