EU judges say we have to pay terrorist

EUROPEAN judges have ordered Britain to pay thousands of pounds to a terrorist who helped the failed July 21 bombers because his human rights were breached.

Ministers were ordered to hand Ismail Abdurahman £13,600 for his legal fees after the Islamist convict argued he had been denied the right to a fair trial.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that a statement the extremist provided as a witness, rather than a suspect, was used against him in court. It comes following a series of unsuccessful legal challenges by plotters behind the failed attacks on the London Underground in 2005 – a fortnight after 52 were murdered by suicide bombers on July 7.

Abdurahman, a British citizen, was charged with assisting one of the bombers and of failing to disclose information about the attack.

He was sentenced to ten years in prison, later reduced to eight on appeal. He hid would-be bomber Hussain Osman after his plan to repeat the carnage of the 7/7 bombings failed.

He was initially treated as a witness, and so quizzed without a lawyer. However, when the terrorist began to incriminate himself, police delayed allowing him access to legal advice and failed to tell him of his right to silence.

Yesterday he won the case after judges voted by 11 to six that his rights had been violated.