'Extremist' Muslim prisoners in France to be put in solitary isolation to halt terror 'phenomenon'

The French government admitted detection of 'extremists' would be difficult

Coulibaly is purportedly shown reading from a piece of paper, pledging allegiance to Isis

Muslim prisoners deemed “extremists” in France will increasingly be put in isolation as gunman Amedy Coulibaly – who murdered four people on Friday – is thought to have accomplices, Prime Minister Manuel Valls claimed today.

Prisons will work towards the general “isolation of radical Islamist inmates” and improve the administrative and judicial systems to make them “more efficient”.

“In continuing investigations into these barbaric terrorist acts, we believe that there are probably accomplices,” Mr Valls said. He claimed that there is at least one accomplice to the crimes carried out in the name of Islam that is still at large and possibly more that could be already imprisoned.

There are 1,400 inmates that are most affected by extremism, he claimed. In total, as many as 60 per cent of all prisoners in France identify themselves as Muslim, a parliamentary report shows that was tabled in October by conservative party UMP.

The report says: “While it is important not to confuse the dangerous perversion of Islamist radicalisation with the normal exercise of the Muslim faith, it is imperative to finally realise the phenomenon.

“For obvious security reasons, prisons and public safety, we must better identify inmates radicalised or emerging Islamist radicalisation. However, the individual labelling of the detainees has become in recent years more difficult.”

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced isolation plans (Getty Images)

Surveillance and methods of eavesdropping are said to also be part of the improvement plans to make detection of inmates who are involved in terrorist-related activity easier and the bill is hoped to be approved by parliament in three to four months.

“I do not want there to young people who identify with these barbaric terrorists who murdered journalists, policemen, French Jews because they were Jews,” said Mr Valls.

Around 10,000 soldiers, gendarmes and police officers are set to be deployed to “sensitive” sites across France with 5,000 of them guarding the 717 Jewish schools across the country, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said today.

Coulibaly was shot dead amid a shower of bullets fired by anti-terror forces after he took customers of a kosher supermarket hostage and killed four. He also shot dead 27-year-old police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe the day before.

His partner Hayat Boumeddiene has been confirmed by Turkey to have flown to Istanbul before the attacks occurred to allegedly cross the border into Syria. She is suspected of having been involved in orchestrating the attacks that killed 17 people in total.

Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi were shot dead by police inside a printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goele after their attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which 12 cartoonists, two police officers and staff died.