This story is so weird I couldn't make it up. The bolschewists are the enemy! 
Cleric Qatada given compensation
Radical preacher Abu Qatada has been awarded £2,500 in compensation by the European Court of Human Rights.
Judges ruled that his detention without trial in the UK under anti-terrorism powers breached his human rights.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was "very disappointed" with the award, but it was "not always possible" to bring terror suspects to trial.
On Wednesday, Law Lords ruled that Abu Qatada, 48, could be deported to Jordan despite fears he could face torture.
Abu Qatada has been held both in Belmarsh high security prison and under 22-hour home curfew. His lawyers have already submitted an application to the European Court appealing against his deportation.
Shadow security minister Crispin Blunt said the pay-out was "an appalling scandal".
'Not torture'
The European Court also awarded pay-outs of between £1,500 and £3,400 to 10 other people who were detained in Britain following 9/11 on suspicion of providing support for extremists linked to al-Qaeda.
They include Abu Rideh, a Palestinian refugee who was detained in December 2001, accused of having links to radical preacher Abu Hamza, and Djamal Ajouaou, a Moroccan national, accused of being connected to two other terror suspects.
If the others, who cannot be named for legal reasons, six are Algerian, one Tunisian and one French.
They were held in prison without charge until 2005 and subsequently released under control orders. Several are understood to have since returned to their own countries.
Judges said the British government had breached three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to liberty, the right for lawfulness of detention to be decided by a court and the right to compensation for unlawful detention.
But they rejected a fourth complaint, ruling that the detention of Abu Qatada did not amount to "torture and inhuman or degrading treatment".
Their decision is final and the government has no right to appeal.
The judges said the compensation amounts were "substantially lower" than those granted in previous cases of "unlawful detention".
They said this was "in view of the fact that the detention scheme (the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001) was devised in the face of a public emergency".
The Act was also designed "as an attempt to reconcile the need to protect the UK public against terrorism with the obligation not to send the applicants back to countries where they faced a real risk of ill-treatment," they said.
Where a person is arrested on the basis of "an allegedly reasonable suspicion of unlawful behaviour", they must have the opportunity to challenge those claims, they added.
The home secretary said the judgement was based on "historic legislation" that was repealed almost four years ago.
"Prosecution is always our preferred option, but is not always possible," she said.
"We replaced this law with a twin-track approach of deportation with assurances for foreign nationals and control orders for those whom we cannot prosecute or deport."
Corinna Ferguson, from human rights group Liberty, said: "Liberty is a fundamental right and it's not something that can be compromised in the face of a terrorist threat."Abu Qatada cannot be deported from Britain until the European Court has considered his appeal bid.
He was convicted in absentia in Jordan for involvement in an alleged conspiracy to bomb hotels in the capital Amman. He was also accused of providing finance and advice for other terror plots.
One judge has described him as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.
Qatada was first detained in 2002, and was later released under a strict control order. He is currently being held in Long Lartin Prison in Worcestershire after being re-arrested for breaching his bail conditions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7898900.stm
Topic: Bolschewist EU "human rights" court gives Abu "Streicher" Qatada compensation (Read 2025 times)