Tunisian security forces

Security sources announced the presence of encrypted communications between terrorists in the prisons of Mornaguia, Manouba and Sfax. Although the General Administration of Prisons and Reform of Ministry of Justice has taken strict security measures in coordination with Interior Ministry to monitor terrorists both during trials and in prison cell rooms or during the movement of terrorists from one prison to another, some prisoners have succeeded in penetrating this security system and have been able to deliver encrypted messages to terrorists in three of largest prison units.

According to the investigations, six families were previously prosecuted for being involved in sending encrypted messages from their terrorist sons imprisoned in prison units to urban and mountain extremists. According to an informed security source, the initial information confirms the involvement of a number of families of terrorists to deliver encrypted messages to their sons in prisons. The sources added that a number of wives of terrorists were behind the process of communication between the extremists of three prisons.

The same source said that IS and al-Qaeda organizations considered that the prisons of Mornaguia, Minouba and Sfax are among the most important targets of terrorists seeking to target these prison facilities. In this context, the sources added that there were schemes to smuggle terrorists from the women's prison in Manouba and to create chaos in Sfax and Mornaguia's prisons.

"The transfer of extremist Fatima Zouaghi from Menouba prison helped dismantle the women's cell there, which was planning to attract more women prisoners, especially those who were prosecuted in cases of prostitution and narcotic substances, adding that the terrorist leaders were distributed either women or males in individual rooms," the sources stated.

Regarding the schemes of the terrorist cells inside the three largest prisons, security sources said that sending of encrypted messages among terrorists helps them to communicate with their outside world and among them inside the prison rooms. Finally, a number of leaders of IS were placed in solitary rooms after they were proven to be trying to attract new elements affiliated with them.