Somali serial thug wins £80k payout after we tried (and failed) to deport him
A VIOLENT foreign criminal with 30 convictions has been awarded nearly £80,000 compensation – for being locked up while he fought deportation from Britain.
Illegal immigrant Abdulrahman Mohammed, 39, was handed the payout after the Government was told it had acted unlawfully by holding him in detention for too long.
The Somali was a ‘prolific’ serious offender who has been jailed more than a dozen times for crimes including burglary, knife possession and multiple assaults and robberies.
A judge said Mohammed had ‘thoroughly abused the hospitality’ of the UK. Even his own solicitor admitted the thug ‘might not be considered an asset to society’.
But the career criminal has been awarded damages for being wrongly detained for 445 days while officials tried in vain to kick him out. In a ruling revealed yesterday, the High Court said the Home Office had failed by holding Mohammed when there was no reasonable prospect of deporting him.
Judge Edward Pepperall QC awarded him £78,500 after ruling he had been falsely imprisoned and was ‘entitled to justice in a civilised society’.
The case sparked demands for ministers to make it harder for foreign criminals to block moves to remove them from Britain. Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: ‘The public will rightly be appalled at the decision to hand taxpayers’ money to a career criminal. It is further evidence that the world has gone mad.
‘Giving foreign nationals who have committed crimes in this country huge sums in compensation shows that the laws need reforming as quickly as possible.’
Mohammed arrived in the UK aged 17 in 1996. He had suffered torture when he was 13 and living with his family in Mogadishu, the court heard. His uncle was shot dead by clansmen and a female relative was raped in front of him. Thugs sliced through his cheeks with bayonets in a bid to cut out his tongue and branded him with a redhot cattle prod.
He tried to claim asylum, but his application was refused. Instead, he was granted a visa to remain but only until August 2000. But within months he had turned to crime, embarking on a 15year spree.
He has been locked up 13 times by British judges – including two separate fouryear terms for robbery – but quickly returned to offending every time he was released.
Mohammed has been the subject of a deportation order since January 2008 – making him an illegal immi grant. But he took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, citing the deteriorating situation in Somalia and the risk to his life, and the UK was ordered not to remove him ‘until further notice’.
Despite there being no prospect of deporting him, he was held in a string of immigration detention centres for a total of 445 days between 2012 and 2016.
Mohammed complained that the detention made him feel ‘frustrated, depressed and hopeless’ and he had to ‘sleep alone, not next to anyone’.
Judge Pepperall said Mohammed was a ‘prolific and violent offender’, and he could ‘well understand’ why the Government wanted to deport him. He added: ‘Some reading this judgment might well question why a foreign citizen who has so thoroughly abused the hospitality of this country by the commission of serious criminal offences is entitled to any compensation.
‘But there are few principles more important in a civilised society than that no one should be deprived of their liberty without lawful authority. Justice should be done to all people.
‘He is not the most wicked of men, but his presence in the UK is not conducive to public good. Nevertheless, in a civilised society, he is entitled to justice.
‘Specifically, he is entitled not to be falsely imprisoned and... he is now entitled to the compensation that I have awarded.’
‘The public will be appalled’