TWO Al-Qaeda terrorists, including one who plotted to kill thousands in a British shopping centre bomb attack, are trying to get their convictions quashed – on HUMAN RIGHTS grounds.
The European Court of Human Rights has given the green light to their application rather than rejecting it as they do with thousands of cases a year.
The pair claim MI5 was complicit in their torture by Pakistani security services, which the British courts reject.
If the government’s explanation does not satisfy the European Court, a full hearing will be ordered which could force British courts to overturn the convictions.
Extremist Salahuddin Amin was jailed for life in 2007 after his terrorist cell conspired to detonate a fertiliser bomb at Bluewater shopping centre, Kent, or at London’s Ministry of Sound.
The other convicted terrorist, Rangzieb Ahmed, was at the centre of al-Qaeda’s global network with links to every Brit terror cell.
Top lawyers have slammed Strasbourg’s growing influence of over British rule and the manipulation of human rights laws.
Former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Lord Carlile, QC, said: “To have the European Court of Human Rights intervening in judgments of fact — as opposed to judgments of law — really would be a new departure and, in my view, a completely unacceptable departure.
Appeal ... the terrorists have been given the green light by the European Court of Human Rights
“It is another illustration of the need for a fresh look at the way the European Court operates in relation to British proceedings.”
If the case went ahead, it would be the first time terrorist convictions had been challenged at Strasbourg in this way, Lord Carlile added.
Amin’s lawyers claim British authorities knew incriminating evidence against him had been obtained through torture, in which three of his fingernails were allegedly removed with pliers.
In paperwork submitted to the European Court, Amin claims his right to a fair trial was breached because information against him was “obtained through the use of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment”.
Ahmed says MI5 allowed him to leave Britain for Pakistan and tipped off intelligence services there so that he could be arrested in 2006 and tortured.
The terrorist, born in Rochdale, Lancs, travelled to Dubai in 2005 as part of an al-Qaeda cell, unaware that he was under surveillance.
After his luggage was secretly searched, British security services found notebooks with details of al-Qaeda contacts and continued to watch him on his return.
David Davis, a former shadow home secretary, has said there is “hard evidence” of torture in the men’s cases and there should be an inquiry, adding: “British intelligence officers would have had to have been wilfully blind and deaf not to know what was going on.”
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