A convicted double murderer and Islamist extremist who took a prison officer hostage at knifepoint has been awarded a taxpayer-funded payout of nearly £240,000 after successfully suing over being held in solitary confinement.
A Hostage Siege Inside Full Sutton Prison
Fuad Awale, 38, a former drug gangster who turned to jihadist sympathies, is serving a life sentence for the execution-style killings of two teenagers in 2011. In May 2013, just days after the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in London, Awale and fellow extremist Feroz Khan ambushed prison officer Richard Thompson inside HMP Full Sutton near York.
The pair held Mr Thompson captive for five terrifying hours. He was pinned to a chair, beaten, and threatened with execution. Awale pressed a makeshift blade to the officer's throat and snarled: 'Stop struggling. I've killed two people - I'll kill you.'
Mr Thompson later told a court he had "every belief" he would be killed, describing how Awale played with knives "like someone preparing to carve up a Sunday roast." The siege only ended after riot police stormed in, following a negotiator's blunt assessment that their timing was poor due to it being the night of the Britain's Got Talent final.
From Separation to a High Court Challenge
Following the hostage incident, Awale was moved to a separation unit designed to prevent him from radicalising other inmates. From 2021, he was held at HMP Woodhill, spending up to 23 hours a day alone with no association with other prisoners.
Awale's legal team then used Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to challenge his conditions. They argued the segregation breached his right to a private life, left him "severely depressed," and that decisions to keep him apart from others were "opaque" and not properly reviewed.
They also claimed the Ministry of Justice failed to consider the high number of potentially "racist" and "Islamophobic" prisoners he might encounter, further limiting his options for association.
Taxpayer-Funded Payout Sparks Political Fury
The High Court allowed the claim on all grounds. Justice Secretary David Lammy has now agreed to a settlement comprising £7,500 in compensation and £234,000 to cover Awale's legal costs.
The decision has provoked outrage. Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who obtained details of the payout, branded it a "sick joke." He accused Labour of "cowing to terrorists and the human rights brigade" and demanded emergency legislation to prevent such claims.
Mr Lammy indicated the government is considering legal changes to stop extremist criminals using the ECHR as a "barrier to us protecting national security." Awale had previously requested to associate with one of Lee Rigby's killers, a request denied on counter-terrorism grounds.
Both Awale and Khan received six-year sentences on top of their existing terms for the hostage siege, during which Khan fractured Mr Thompson's eye socket. The judge at their trial said colleagues were "convinced he was going to die in horrific circumstances."
