LONDON: Muslim prisoners in England are more frequently subjected to painful restraining techniques at the hands of prison staff compared with other inmates, new data shows.

In eight out of nine prisons with high Muslim populations, Muslim men are more frequently targeted with batons, made to wear rigid bar handcuffs, or are held in painful positions, according to data obtained by freedom of information requests.

Maslaha, a social justice charity, requested the information from the nine prisons, The Guardian reported.

It comes amid calls for a crackdown on Muslim gangs in British prisons. The data received by Maslaha covers 2023, the latest full year available.

In London’s Belmarsh prison, which often holds terrorist suspects, Muslim prisoners made up 32 percent of the population in 2023.

However, that year, Muslim men in Belmarsh were subjected to 43 percent of incidents involving the use of rigid bar handcuffs and 61 percent of instances relating to pain-inducing techniques.

Similar disparities were recorded in Cambridgeshire’s HMP Whitemoor, London’s HMP Isis and HMP/YOI Feltham B, as well as HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.

Just one of the nine prisons included in the data, HMP The Mount, recorded a use of force against Muslim prisoners lower than for the overall population.

Maslaha’s director, Raheel Mohammed, said that the disparities “lay bare the realities of life” for Muslims in British prisons.

He added that Muslims were “being targeted by the use of force, subjected to dangerous, pain-inducing techniques and singled out for deliberately humiliating treatment.”

Separate data from the Ministry of Justice, for September last year, showed that there were 15,594 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales. They accounted for 18 percent of all prison inmates.

In response to the statistics concerning the use of force, Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “Staff only use force at the last resort when necessary and when it is used, it is always proportionate and reasonable.”

Last year, HM Prison & Probation Service launched a national initiative to tackle racial disproportionality in the use of force.

It included measuring disparities in treatment between prisoners of different ethnic groups and religions.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We recognize the use of force in prisons needs greater supervision and have already introduced mechanisms to reduce the disparities in how it is used.

“Our new race disparity unit will help tackle racial discrimination further.”

LIVERVILLE: Gabon international striker Aaron Boupendza died on Wednesday at the age of 28 when he fell from the 11th floor of a building in China, according to the national football federation (Fegafoot).
“The Gabonese international died following a fall from the 11th floor of his building in China where he was playing for Zhejiang FC,” the federation said in a statement on X.
“Aged 28, Boupendza leaves us with the memory of a great striker who left his mark on the CAN (Africa Cup of Nations) in Cameroon.”

In 2022, the Panthers were eliminated in the last 16 of the AFCON by Burkina Faso.
“Fegafoot and the entire Gabonese football family offer their sincere condolences to his biological family,” the federation added.
Gabonese president-elect Brice Oligui Nguema also took to X to add his condolences.
“It is with immense sadness that I learn of the tragic death of Aaron Boupendza, a talented center-forward who brought honor to Gabonese football,” he posted.
Broadcaster Gabon 24 said that while “the exact circumstances of this tragedy are still unclear” an investigation is underway “to establish the facts.”
Born in Moanda, Boupendza joined French side Bordeaux in 2016, spending most of his time on loan at other French clubs.
In 2020 he signed for Turkish side Hatayspor, and was top scorer in the Super Lig in 2020-21 before moving on to Al Arabi, with whom he won the Qatar FA Cup, and Al Shabab in the Saudi Pro League.
Spells in the USA with FC Cincinnati and Romania’s Rapid Bucharest followed ahead of his move to China in January.