Guwahati News Desk: According to the statements given by the officials on Tuesday, an Islamic State-inspired extremist was moved to a maximum security prison after punching officers and repeatedly throwing feces and urine at them in New Zealand prison.
The extremist was identified as Samsudeen, who arrived in New Zealand ten years ago from Sri Lanka, on a student visa and later claimed refugee status.
Rachel Leota, the national commissioner at the Department of Corrections, said Samsudeen would often abuse staff and there had been multiple times when he’d thrown feces and urine at them or threatened violence.
Leota said, “He argued with staff about which yard he was going to and his behavior escalated…He was directed to return to his cell and he struck two officers.”
She added that he later assaulted another staff member.
Leota further said they identified Samsudeen as having potentially violent extremist views but he refused help. She said he did meet twice with an imam from the local Muslim community but didn’t engage with him in a meaningful way.
Regarding his imprisonment journey, he was first jailed in 2017 after he tried to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State insurgency. He was held on various charges including fraud and distributing restricted material after police found Islamic State videos and a hunting knife at his apartment. He pleaded guilty to five charges in June 2018 and was released because of the time he’d already served. However, six weeks later, he was jailed again on new charges and remained in prison until July of this year.
Moreover, he spent his final year in the maximum security Auckland Prison with a small number of other prisoners identified as posing “extreme risk.”
Photo | AP
