Jailed Choudary moved ‘to stop his influence’

BRITAIN’S most notorious Islamist hate preacher has been transferred to a specialist secure unit amid fears he is radicalising inmates.

Anjem Choudary has reportedly become the first known Islamist to be moved to a “separation centre” at HMP Frankland in County Durham.

The centres, also known as “jihadi jails”, were proposed after a review into prison extremism recommended preachers and terrorists who have tried to convert or incite others should be kept separate from mainstream prisoners.

Choudary was jailed for five years and six months at the Old Bailey last September for encouraging support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

He was moved to the centre after he refused to stop preaching his extremist views, The Sunday Times reported.

HMP Frankland is the first of three units to be built. Others will follow at HMP Woodhill, in Milton Keynes, and HMP Full Sutton, in Yorkshire. The three centres will hold 28 “of the most subversive offenders,” the Ministry of Justice said.

A spokesman said: “Some of the most dangerous and radicalised extremists are now being housed in the government’s first specialist centre at HMP Frankland – helping stem the flow of radicalisation behind bars and preventing their influence over others.

“Those seeking to influence others to commit terrorist crimes, or whose extremist views are purposely undermining good order and security in the prison estate, may also be placed in the centre.”

The Ministry of Justice refused to identify prisoners in Frankland’s separation centre. There are currently more than 130 convicted Islamist terrorists in UK jails.

Ian Acheson, who led the Government’s review into the issue, said in May that Islamist extremism is such a growing menace inside British prisons that it now represents a “clear and present danger” to national security.