Government ordered to pay £13,000 to convicted terrorist in human rights ruling

Compensation award: a court ruled Ismail Abdurahman’s human rights had been breached
Metropolitan Police
Hannah Al-Othman14 September 2016
WEST END FINAL

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The Government has been ordered to pay for the £13,000 to a convicted terrorist after a European court ruled that his human rights had been “violated”.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Scotland Yard had voiolated Ismail Abdurahman’s rights to a fair trial and right to legal assistance during police interviews over a plot to attack London.

The ECHR ordered that €16,000 (£13,600) of Ismail Abdurahman’s legal costs must be paid as a seven-year court battle came to a head.

Abdurahman hid one of the failed bombers who attempted to launch a second round of atrocities on July 21 2005, just two weeks after the July 7 attacks that devastated London.

He hid Hussein Osman for three days, during a nationwide manhunt during which an innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, was killed.

A panel of 17 judges sitting in the ECHR’s Grand Chamber found Abdurahman’s rights to a fair trial and right to legal assistance had been breached by the Metropolitan Police, who initially questioned Abdurahman as a witness but failed to follow necessary procedure when he became a suspect.

The verdict was agreed by an 11 vote to six majority after lengthy consideration by judges from countries including Britain, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Macedonia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.

Accomplice: Ismail Abdurahman (white top) with failed bomber Hussein Osman at Vauxhall train station
Metropolitan Police

A judgement released yesterday said: “The Government [has not] demonstrated compelling reasons for restricting his access to legal advice and failing to inform him of his right to remain silent.

“It was significant that there was no basis in domestic law for the police to choose not to caution Mr Abdurahman at the point at which he had started to incriminate himself.”

The ECHR refused to award the full £36,000 that Abdurahman’s lawyers requested, and did not conclude he had been wrongly convicted following the terror plot.

Abdurahman was jailed for eight years for giving shelter to Osman – one of five extremists who attempted to bomb the London transport network.

The bombers had made crude explosive devices using chapati flour, hydrogen peroxide and shrapnel, which failed to explode when the detonators were activated.

In the same hearing, the Grand Chamber threw out appeals by three other men convicted over the terror plot, who said their human rights had been breached.

Failed bomber: Hussein Osman (pictured) was one of the five would-be bombers
Metropolitan Police

In response to the judgement, a Home Office spokesman said: “The British courts found that these individuals planned to bring terror to the streets of London just two weeks after 52 people were killed in the July 7 bombings. Had their plot been successful, it would have had devastating consequences.

“We are pleased that the Grand Chamber has agreed with the British courts and has rejected the appeal of the three bombers. They remain behind bars where they belong.

Crude devices: a backpack used to carry explosives made from hydrogen peroxide and chapati flour
Metropolitan Police

“But we are disappointed with the Grand Chamber’s decision in relation to Ismail Abdurahman, who was convicted of helping one of the bombers to evade capture.

"Although this does not overturn his conviction for this serious offence, we will now carefully consider the implications of the judgment for our procedures in this type of case.”

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