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| Europe |
| Hard boyz to be separated to avoid any more recruitment behind bars |
| 2004-11-02 |
| The government has ordered most of the suspects jailed over the Madrid terror bombings to be dispersed in prisons around Spain as part of a plan to prevent Islamic radicals from recruiting behind bars, a newspaper said Monday. El Pais said 14 of those 16 suspects, who are all in prisons in the Madrid area, will be transferred to prisons as far south as Andalusia and to Galicia in Spain's northwest corner. Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available to comment on the report. The measure comes in response to Judge Baltasar Garzon's recent warning that Spanish prisons have become breeding grounds for Islamic terrorists willing to commit suicide attacks. Police who foiled a new, alleged plot to assassinate Garzon and other judges probing Islamic terror with a suicide truck bombing of the National Court said that cell was recruited in Spanish prisons among Muslims serving terms for common crimes. Of 18 suspects in that alleged plot, 10 were already in prison and eight were at large but had done jail time, officials said. All 18 now face preliminary charges of belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organization. And of 13 more suspects due to be questioned this week, five were already in jail. El Pais said the Interior Ministry's new plan for keeping closer tabs on Islamic radicals in prison includes isolating new terror suspects from other inmates, restricting their movements and monitoring their communications. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |