Prisoner accused of trying to murder jail guards because they were not Muslim
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A suspected Islamic extremist tried to kill five prison officers with homemade weapons including a sharpened plastic spoon because they are not Muslims, the Old Bailey has heard. Aklakar Rahman, 38, is accused of repeated attacks on staff at HMS Swaleside in Kent and high-security south London Belmarsh jail in September and October 2022.
Prosecutor Alistair Richardson told jurors: “This highly dangerous man does not leave it to anybody else to work out what he is doing. He has repeatedly said that he wants to kill prison officers. Both before the attacks, at the time he attacks, and afterwards.
“He wants to kill prison officers, who he sees as ‘kuffar’, a derogatory term for non-Muslims.”. The court has heard Rahman had a history of using improvised weapons to try to kill prison officers by stabbing at their heads and necks. He is currently on trial for 20 alleged offences, including five of attempted murder, six attempted assaults on an emergency worker, and possessing sharpened pieces of plastic.
At the time of the alleged attacks, Rahman was serving a life sentence for three earlier attempted murders and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, over incidents of violence at HMP Wayland, HMP Lincoln and HMP Wakefield in the summer of 2017.
On September 23 2022, the defendant had been detained in the high-security segregation unit at HMP Swaleside over concerns he was trying to radicalise other inmates to “extreme versions of Islam”, the court was told. He was being escorted to a shower when he allegedly punched officer Lee Lassman in the face, shouted “Allahu Akhbar” and stabbed officer Ludovic Barbier in the forehead with a pen.
