Prisoner who took MoJ to court says he is still isolated 20 months later

A prisoner who brought a legal challenge in April 2023 alleging he had been held in solitary confinement in England for more than two years has said he remains in isolation 20 months later because the judge has not given her decision in the case.

- Haroon Siddique

Kevan Thakrar, who is serving a life sentence for murder and attempted murder after being convicted on a joint enterprise basis in October 2008, brought a judicial review against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) claiming unlawful solitary confinement.

The case was heard at the high court in April 2023, when it was told that Thakrar was suicidal, having, at the time, spent 749 consecutive days - and five of the previous eight years - in a designated cell, totally isolated from other prisoners, within a high-security close supervision centre (CSC). The delay in the judgment means he has spent more than 1,300 days consecutively in conditions that his lawyer, Nick Armstrong KC, said at trial entailed confinement to his cell for more than 22 hours a day and no association with other prisoners.