Advertisement
Advertisement

Jail breakout plot foiled in Australia

Nick Squires

Australian authorities claimed yesterday to have foiled a plot by Islamic converts to break out of the country's most secure jail.

The converts - among them Aborigines and formerly Christian inmates - were allegedly led by one of Australia's most dangerous criminals, convicted murderer Bassam Hamzy.

The 28-year-old arranged for money to be paid secretly to prisoners prepared to worship Allah and help plan an escape from the supermax section of Goulburn jail in New South Wales.

Twelve of the 37 inmates in the supermax section became Muslim fundamentalists or converts. They shaved their heads, grew long beards and prayed in their cells up to five times a day. Some are of Middle Eastern background, but many are white Australians or Aborigines.

A small but growing number of Aborigines are turning to Islam, in part as a source of spiritual pride but also in rejection of the drug and alcohol abuse that has wreaked havoc in their communities.

'These people have never had any contact or interest in religion before, and all of a sudden they're converting to Islam,' said Ron Woodham, commissioner of the New South Wales Corrective Services. 'Hamzy is the power broker or the organiser. The officers are using a term down there now at Goulburn jail, 'Pay to pray'.'

Authorities moved swiftly to disrupt what they described as a carefully orchestrated plot. They said the gang planned to seize prison officers, take control of the supermax prison and break out of jail. Code-breakers and translators are examining recordings of inmates' telephone conversations - a mixture of English and Arabic.

Prisoners have been banned from accessing outside funds, visits by friends and family have been curtailed, and gang members have been ordered to speak only in English.

Hamzy has been moved to a prison in Lithgow, at the foot of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. He is alleged to have been building a web of support in which inmates were receiving regular payments of A$100 (HK$650) - enough to enable them to buy radios, cigarettes and other luxuries. The payments were traced to a bank account in Bankstown, a Sydney suburb with a large Arabic and Muslim population.

The prisoners who converted to Islam probably did so as an act of rebellion rather than out of a genuine interest in the religion, a criminologist said.

'It's a way of exercising control over your circumstances and flexing some collective muscle,' said Stephen Smallbone, a former prison psychiatrist and now an associate professor in criminology at Griffith University in Queensland.

'It's chest beating. They know it's a scary proposition for prison officers. They are living in an environment in which there is otherwise very little opportunity to establish their authority.'

Hamzy was one of the gravest threats to the security of a prison ever encountered in New South Wales, Mr Woodham said. Hamzy is serving 21 years in prison for shooting dead an 18-year-old man outside a Sydney nightclub in 1998.

When the first prisoners began to convert two years ago, prison officers regarded the development benignly, regarding the self-discipline and solace provided by the religion as a means of rehabilitation. 'We actually gave them prayer mats,' Mr Woodham said.

Then more sinister motives began to emerge. 'We don't have a difficulty with people taking up a religion per se in jail,' said state Justice Minister John Hatzistergos. 'Where we do draw the line is where religion is really a camouflage for other activities.'

Post