A group of 86 protesters who allegedly breached prison grounds at west London’s Wormwood Scrubs jail have been arrested, the Metropolitan Police said.
The force said the group were “protesting in support of a Palestine Action prisoner on a hunger strike”, and allegedly threatened police and stopped prison staff from entering and exiting.
The Prisoners for Palestine campaign group identified the inmate as Muhammad Umer Khalid, 22, who they say began a thirst strike on Friday. He is awaiting trial over a break-in at RAF Brize Norton last June. He denies the charges.
All those involved will be arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass after refusing to leave.
“A number managed to get inside a staff entrance area of a prison building,” the Met said.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said that “at no point was prison security compromised” and called the action an “escalation” that was “completely unacceptable”.
“While we support the right to peacefully protest, reports of trespassing and threats being made to staff and police officers are deeply concerning,” they said.
Prisoners for Palestine said Khalid has limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, a genetic condition, and was on an “extremely dangerous” thirst strike.
A migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison has been deported from UK, the government has announced.
Hadush Kebatu was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping while living in an asylum hotel, but was mistakenly set free by prison staff last week, before being brought into custody again on Sunday.
He arrived in Ethiopia on Wednesday morning having left the UK on a flight on Tuesday night.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "Last week's blunder should never have happened - and I share the public's anger that it did. I would like to thank the police for rapidly bringing Mr Kebatu into custody and the public for their vigilance."
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
“For me, hell was not the moment Israel attacked; hell was the moment they wouldn’t open the door [of the cell] for us,” Motahareh Goonei recalls in an exclusive interview with the BBC.
A political activist, Goonei was in solitary confinement in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison when it was hit in a targeted attack by Israel on 23 June.
Satellite imagery, witness accounts and verified footage obtained by BBC News Persian reveal new details of the attack in the closing hours of the Israel-Iran war and of those who died.
The high-security complex, perched on the northern edge of Tehran, has held thousands of political prisoners over the past half-century. On that day in June, the prison became the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on Iranian soil in terms of civilian casualties.
Iranian authorities say 80 people were killed – among them prison staff, inmates, medical workers, visitors and residents of nearby neighbourhoods.
In a report published on 14 August, Human Rights Watch said that Israeli air strikes on the prison were unlawfully indiscriminate and amounted to an apparent war crime.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the reason for the attack was that the facility was being “used for intelligence operations against Israel”.
‘No way out’
Describing the moment explosions ripped through the compound, Goonei said: “When I heard the third blast, I was certain there was no way out. I just pounded on the door with all my strength, but it wouldn’t open. I thought ‘this is the end of your life – say goodbye’.”
Motahareh Goonei has been temporarily released from prison on bail [Supplied]
Freed from her cell by another prisoner, Goonei stumbled into thick, choking smoke. She says that guards initially tried to block inmates from escaping, and some prison interrogators even threatened them.
Yet in scenes she described as “horrific but humanising”, prisoners rushed to help injured guards, calming a panicked female officer and bandaging the wounds of a crying interrogator.
Other inmates from another ward rushed to help doctors and nurses trapped in the prison clinic.
Saeedeh Makarem, a doctor who was badly injured in the strike, later wrote on Instagram: “The very prisoners I once treated saved my life.”
Another woman held in Evin, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears for her safety, has described the moment of the attack to the BBC.
“At first there were several explosions in quick succession, and the noise went on for about two minutes.
“We stayed on our beds at first because the windows had shattered, then we got dressed and all helped to bring the older women downstairs. No-one from the prison helped us – they shut the door on us and said we couldn’t go out.’
Scale of the attack
BBC analysis indicates Israel attacked Evin with at least six projectiles, damaging at least 28 buildings inside the complex.
The IDF says it had conducted a “targeted strike” on “a symbol of oppression against the Iranian people” and claimed that measures were taken to minimise harm to civilians.
But a relative of a political prisoner who arrived to visit just minutes after the blasts said “those coming out of the prison were saying there were bodies everywhere. Some prisoners had come out, none of them trying to escape — just stunned.”
Iranian authorities say 75 inmates fled during the chaos. Some were later recaptured or returned voluntarily.
Identifying victims
Iranian officials say that of the 80 people killed in the attack, 42 were prison staff and five were inmates. Only the names of the staff have been released.
BBC News Persian has independently verified the identities and the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three of the victims through interviews with their relatives. They are:
Masoud Behbahani, a dual Iranian-American citizen, who was being held on financial charges. His family were given conflicting accounts of his death from the Iranian Prisons Organisation.
Arvin Mohammadi, 37, killed in the administrative building while posting bail for his father’s temporary release from prison during the war
Mehrangiz Imanpour, 61, a prominent artist and painter, killed by shrapnel
Among the other victims killed in the attack were a local mother of a one-year-old child, a philanthropist visiting to arrange a prisoner’s release, five social workers, 13 young military conscripts, and the five-year-old child of one of the social workers.
After the attack on Evin Prison, the fate of transgender prisoners remains unknown. Some media reports claimed that 100 transgender inmates had been killed, but BBC Persian’s investigation reveals that this is not true.
Reza Shafakhah, a lawyer in Iran who has been following the situation of transgender prisoners, told the BBC: “There are serious concerns about their situation. No-one knows where these prisoners are now.”
Left to right: Arvin Mohammadi, Mehrangiz Imenpoir and Masoud Behbahani were among those killed [BBC / Supplied]
Why target Evin?
Israel alleged the prison was being used for “intelligence operations [against it], including counter-espionage”. It has not responded to questions from the BBC about the exact targets or weapons used, or whether it anticipated civilian deaths.
A month after the attack, Amnesty International published a report into the incident.
“Directing attacks at civilian objects is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law. Carrying out such attacks knowingly and deliberately constitutes a war crime,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty.
The UN human rights office stated Evin was “not a military objective” and the attack violated international humanitarian law.
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse of women behind bars in two California prisons, citing numerous reports of groping, inappropriate touching and rape by correctional workers.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated the rights of women at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino by failing to protect them from sexual abuse by prison staff.
The move comes after dozens of women held at the two prisons in the last two years brought multiple lawsuits against the corrections department, alleging that they were subjected to sexual harassment, molestation and rape by prison staff under the color of authority.
More than 30 current and former correctional officers have been named in the lawsuits, which graphically document allegations of sexual abuse stretching back more than a decade. The complaints also allege that, when they were at their most vulnerable, the women were punished and sometimes abused further for reporting their assailants.
Since 2014, at least 17 correctional officers accused of sexual misconduct in California women’s prisons have been fired, have resigned or have retired, according to records. Prison sexual abuse data, however, show few disciplinary consequences for the correctional staff despite hundreds of complaints — with most of the allegations not being sustained.
“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to sexual abuse by prison staff who are constitutionally bound to protect them,” said Asst. Atty. Gen. Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Every woman, including those in prison, retains basic civil and constitutional rights and should be treated with dignity and respect. California must ensure that the people it incarcerates are housed in conditions that protect them from sexual abuse.”
“Correctional staff at both facilities reportedly sought sexual favors in return for contraband and privileges,” Clarke alleged, adding, “I’ll note that the correctional officers named in these allegations range in rank and have even included the very people responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse made by women incarcerated at these facilities.”
In a statement responding to the probe, CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber said, “Sexual assault is a heinous violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated — under any circumstances — within California’s state prison system. Our department embraces transparency, and we fully welcome the U.S. Department of Justice’s independent investigation.”
Clarke said the investigation will examine reports from hundreds of women of inappropriate touching, groping and forcible rape.
“Sexual abuse and misconduct will not be tolerated in prisons,” said U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada for the Central District.
More than two dozen protesters marched in front of the California Institution For Women in Chino in April 14.
(Mark Boster / For The Times)
“Concern about the physical safety of people inside California women’s prisons is not new,” said U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California. “Media coverage, state audits, advocates’ efforts and private litigation have sought to draw attention to an issue often unseen by many in the community.”
Clarke said that at this stage, no conclusions have been drawn. However, federal prosecutors painted a dire picture of allegations made by the women California holds in the two prisons.
The federal action comes as a lawsuit accusing a former correctional officer at the Central California Women’s Facility of widespread sexual assaults is slated to go to trial in a California court. Filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, the lawsuit included allegations of forcible rape, groping and oral copulation, as well as threats of violence and punishment with abusive conduct, from 2014 to 2020.
In addition, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over the last decade making similar accusations against officers at the Central California Women’s Facility, Clarke said.
The legal actions pending against state correctional officers provide a road map of alleged depravity and inaction by prison authorities for federal prosecutors to pursue. For example, a lawsuit accuses a sergeant at the Chino prison of more than 40 often-violent rapes and other sexual misconduct in 2015. And a former officer at the Chowchilla prison, Gregory Rodriguez, awaits trial on 96 counts of sex crimes against nearly a dozen women held there.
Sexual abuse of incarcerated women is a widespread problem in facilities nationwide, with government surveys suggesting that more than 3,500 women are sexually abused by prison and jail workers annually. And it’s a problem in federal prisons as well as state lockups.
In April, the federal Bureau of Prisons closed the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., where more than a half-dozen correctional officers and the former warden have either been charged or convicted of sexually abusing female inmates. The prison was so plagued by sexual abuse that it was known among inmates and workers as the “rape club.”
