A NSW prisoner who allegedly persuaded some of the most dangerous criminals in the NSW jail system to convert to a radical form of Islam has been transferred to a specialist program for extremely high-risk prisoners.

The NSW Government announced that Bassam Hamzy, 28, serving 21 years for murder, was transferred in the early hours of yesterday in a convoy of specially secured vehicles from the “Supermax” jail in Goulburn, NSW, to a high-security prison in Lithgow west of Sydney.

Hamzy was placed in leg irons and double handcuffs and dressed in restrictive bright orange overalls. He has been classified as an “extreme high security risk” and will be forced to undergo a compulsory anti-gang program designed for inmates who pose a threat tothe prison system.

Face-to-face contact with visitors is forbidden and any visits he is allowed must be conducted through a bullet-proof screen. He will be forbidden from speaking in any language other than English, following reports he had been concealing the intent of his conversations from guards.

According to reports in Fairfax newspapers, Hamzy has been instrumental in converting more than a dozen prisoners inside theSupermax to radical Islam, particularly targeting indigenous inmates. The conversion of Aboriginal prisoners to radical Islam was reported in The Australian in August last year.

NSW Attorney-General and Justice Minister John Hatzistergos said the Government did not have difficulty with people taking up religion while in prison — a common experience — but he would not tolerate religion being used to camouflage sinister behaviour.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Greg Smith condemned the state Government for not acting sooner. “This is not a new development,” he said. “The so-called conversions to Islam by major criminals in the Supermax facility were prominently reported in 2005. The Government and prison authorities have known about it for years.”