A French inmate serving time in Tarascon prison has been accused by investigators of publishing propaganda for the Islamic State terror group using a smuggled phone.
The inmate, identified by his first name Amir, is said to have used a Facebook profile under the name Amiro Amiro to publish Islamic State videos on a phone that was allegedly smuggled into the prison by his sister, La Provence reports.
Amir’s sister has denied that she had smuggled the phone and SIM card used but records show that she had purchased them both.
Amir, who has been in prison since 2012, also denied posting Islamic State videos to the Facebook account, saying that he had shared the phone with other prisoners and only ever used it to send pictures to his family.
When asked directly about the posts Amir said that he was a moderate Muslim and went on to add, “I do not share this ideology, I do not endorse that.”
The 25-year-old, who has been in prison for six years after convictions and reports of violence, theft, drugs, and an allegation of rape, is now scheduled for release in a matter of days but insists he has worked to rehabilitate himself.
“I want to go out, work, reintegrate, I did not ask to be delinquent, my father was an alcoholic, when I went out he said to me: come back at this time, and if I forgot, he locked the door and I stayed outside,” he claimed.
The allegations echo another case in which smuggled mobile phones were used by a pair of radical Islamic extremists to co-ordinate and communicate with Islamic State members. The pair, who were also close to the end of their prison sentences, were found to have been plotting a terror attack upon their release.
According to a report from France’s Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet earlier this year an estimated 450 radical Islamic extremists are set for release from French prisons by the end of 2019, 50 of whom are considered terror threats.
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