Terrorist rights Euro courts thwarts deportations

Times:

Britain’s efforts to deport terrorist suspects including the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada were dealt a serious blow by the European Court of Human Rights yesterday.

In a unanimous decision, the court in Strasbourg ruled against an attempt by Italy to return a Tunisian to his home country. The Italian authorities had sought to have Nassim Saadi deported on the ground that he had played an “active role” in an organisation providing support to fundamentalist Islamist cells in Italy and abroad.

The 17 judges decided that sending Saadi back would violate the European Convention on Human Rights because he faced a real risk of torture or inhumane treatment. Britain, which is seeking to send Abu Qatada to Jordan, had intervened in the case in the hope that the court would back the return of suspects regardless of their home country’s human rights record.

Ministers argued that the right of the British public to be protected against terrorism should be balanced against suspects’ right not to be illtreated on their return home. But the court rejected the Government’s argument and ruled that the protection against torture is absolute.

The judgment, from which there is no appeal, binds all countries of the Council of Europe, including Britain.

It also threw into question another part of the Government’s strategy for trying to remove foreign terrorist suspects. Ministers have sought assurances from several North African and Middle Eastern countries that deportees will not be subject to torture or inhumane treatment.

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This is nuts. What this really means is that the terrorist and human debris from Muslim countries can be shipped to European countries who must turn them loose among their population. Putting innocent non combatants at risk to avoid the discomfort of people who want to kill us makes no sense. It is clear that this court is not democratically elected because they would all be thrown out of office if they were. The best way to protect yourself in Europe is probably to abrogate the treaty which gives these terrorist rights judges their control over defending themselves.