A convicted terrorist who was separated from other inmates in HMP Frankland had his human rights breached, a High Court judge has ruled.
Sahayb Abu was jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years in 2021 for plotting a lone wolf knife attack during the coronavirus lockdown and was moved to HMP Frankland in Durham last year.
Abu was segregated after fellow inmate Hashem Abedi allegedly attacked several prison officers on April 12.
Abedi, the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi, has since denied attempting to murder three prison officers and assaulting a fourth.
Following the incident, Abu was transferred to HMP Woodhill in Buckinghamshire and segregated on April 17 before being moved to HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire.
He took legal action against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in August, with his lawyers claiming that, other than for a period of eight weeks when he could associate with one other inmate, he has been prevented from associating with others.
Abu’s barristers told a hearing in October that this continued segregation was unlawful and breached articles three and eight of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protect against torture and inhumane and degrading treatment, and the right to private and family life.
The Government opposed the challenge.
In a judgment on Tuesday, Mr Justice Sheldon found the segregation “cannot be justified substantively” and interfered with Abu’s human rights.
He said: “The suffering that the claimant has experienced goes way beyond the inevitable element of suffering that is connected with segregation.
“An individual who is segregated from others and deprived of the usual activities available to prisoners – education, work, communal prayer – will inevitably suffer isolation and an element of distress and anxiety.
“What the claimant experienced was much more severe than that: he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on, at least in part, by the segregation.
“The mental health support provided to the claimant has not mitigated his symptoms of trauma and distress, and will not do so for some time, if at all, if he remains within the full strictures of the segregation regime.”
Abu was jailed for preparing for terrorist acts in April 2021 after discussing guns with an undercover police officer whom he met on a Telegram chat group for supporters of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.
His half-brothers, Wail and Suleyman Aweys, joined IS in Syria in 2015, where they are both believed to have been killed.
In his 149-page judgment, Mr Justice Sheldon said while Abu was detained in mainstream prison, concerns were raised about his “behaviour and his rising influence among other prisoners, with reports suggesting that he was sharing his Islamist extremist ideology with others”.
He was moved to the separation centre at the category-A HMP Frankland last September.
These centres, introduced in 2017, aim to control and contain prisoners with extreme views, for example by preventing them from disrupting the prison estate, supporting acts of terrorism or radicalising other inmates.
Abu was then moved to HMP Woodhill following the attack on prison officers on April 12.
The incident led the Government to announce that some prison officers would wear body armour and that Tasers would be trialled in prisons.
Mr Justice Sheldon said that for around four months of Abu’s segregation, he could only see and speak to other prisoners through the windows of his cell and was allowed out of his cell for one hour and 10 minutes a day.
He has been allowed to associate with one other prisoner since October 16, the judge said.
In court documents, Abu claimed he became “paranoid” and “very reclusive”, felt “constantly fearful” and “very despondent”, and began to feel like “there was no point to my life”.
He also reported hearing a “growling man’s voice in my head” and that he was “so worried about the voice continuing to talk to me”.
Medical experts told the High Court hearing in London that Abu suffered from auditory and visual hallucinations and “PTSD and severe depression”, which were “seriously exacerbated” by segregation.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Sheldon found the MoJ’s decisions to continue Abu’s segregation were unlawful, stating Abu had a history of trauma but that the department failed to “provide him with any therapeutic treatment”.
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He continued that “no reasonable decision-maker could have failed” to obtain an “essential” mental health assessment.
The judge continued that a segregated prisoner with an “ordinary level of resilience” may not have their human rights breached by the regime, but said Abu “was not such a prisoner”.
He concluded that he would “consider representations” about what steps should be taken as a consequence of the ruling.
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