Spain: Imprisoned Jihadi Arrested After Trying To Recruit Inmates For Islamic State From Prison

Officers from the Provincial Information Brigade of the National Police in Madrid, in collaboration with the Secretariat-General of Penitentiary Institutions, arrested a prisoner on Monday at the Penitentiary Centre in Segovia.

The prisoner was trying to recruit and indoctrinate, from prison, inmates for Islamic State (DAESH) with the intention of training them in the ideals of the terrorist group. Furthermore, the inmate is accused of an offence of threats in the name of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of this criminal group.

The detainee, originally from Morocco, 42 years of age, is serving out a sentence for offences relating to gender-based violence and is considered to be fully radicalised. The detainee fundamentally aimed his work at recruiting other inmates whose sentences were on the verge of being completed.

This arrest has been carried out within the framework of Operation Khalya, in which another two people were arrested on 26 October for sending threatening letters. These two arrests also took place at penitentiary centres. The operation was carried out within the National Strategic Plan to Fight Violent Radicalisation (Spanish acronym: PEN-LCRV), which contains a specific section given over to combating radicalisation in penitentiary centres.