Prison officer union bosses say sniffer dogs have been banned from the unit that held terror plotter Hashem Abedi — after terrorists complained they offended their Muslim faith.
Officers at HMP Frankland used the hounds to search inmates as they returned from the exercise yard.
But the head of the prison officers’ union says checks were axed after those held at the unit said coming into contact with the animals was against their religious beliefs.
Mark Fairhurst, national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “When it first opened, every prisoner housed on that unit was thoroughly searched on the unit, and when they left the unit and when they returned to the unit. On occasion, dogs were used.
“The prisoners complained that it interfered with their religious beliefs.
“The management committee overruled the staff and removed the dogs from searching those prisoners.
“We appease these prisoners and pander to them. Why? Why are we so obsessed with upsetting prisoners, terrorist prisoners, whose sole purpose is to murder prison officers?”
Hashem Abedi, 28 — brother of Ariana Grande concert bomber Salman — threw hot oil and knifed staff with makeshift weapons at Frankland last weekend.
Three officers, including a woman, were said to be injured but the toll had been updated to four.
Frankland’s Separation Unit was set up in 2017 to keep terrorist prisoners from other inmates — to stop the spread of dangerous ideologies.
Among those held there, in the prison near Durham, was hate preacher Anjem Choudary.
It has since been emptied of prisoners, with Abedi moved to a segregation cell in Belmarsh Prison, South East London.
Ex prison governor Ian Acheson — who carried out a 2016 review into Islamist extremism — told The Sun on Sunday: “We are putting the security, safety and welfare of front-line staff constantly at risk because we’re pandering to people on the basis that staff fear being accused of racism, or bosses of legal challenge.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/34550189/islamist-terrorists-exempt-sniffer-dog-searches