Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam TALKING to inmates while in solitary confinement
ISIS Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has managed to speak to prisoners behind bars, despite being in solitary confinement, it has emerged.
France’s most hated terrorist, the sole surviving participant in the Paris terror attacks, has also been able to bond with inmates as there are not enough cells in maximum-security Fleury-Mérogis prison.
French prisons are currently operating at 140 per cent capacity making isolating Muslims increasingly difficult.
Every person who has come into contact with killer jihadi has had to be relocated.
French justice minister, Jean-Jacques Urvoas, was forced to admit the security breaches, which have been occurring since he was incarcerated on April 27.
Mr Urvoas blamed overcrowding rather than poor security, telling French television station iTELE: “There are currently 4,366 prisoners at Fleury-Mérogis, but only half the number of cells.
“Every single time we have caught him (Mr Abdeslam) attempting to strike up a conversation with one of his neighbours; that person has been transferred to another prison within days, even if the two had only had time to exchange a few words.”
There are currently 4,366 prisoners at Fleury-Mérogis, but only half the number of cells
The justice minister added that the cells surrounding Mr Abdeslam’s had all been kept empty, and that as a result, the inmates he had managed to speak with had been “quite some distance” away.
He said that the ISIS executioner – whose cell windows are covered with Plexiglas – had “raised his voice in order to be heard”.
Mr Urvoas said disciplinary action had been launched against Mr Abdeslam, and reminded the public that his maximum-security cell was under 24-hour video surveillance, meaning that his every move was being both watched and recorded.
There are currently 68,253 convicts and 58,311 places in France’s prisons.
Last week, Mr Urvoas, along with French prime minister Manuel Valls, promised to build 33 new prisons and up to 16,000 extra individual cells in a bid to stop dangerous jihadists and self-styled preachers – including Mr Abdeslam – from radicalising more vulnerable inmates.