A foreign national who has been interned under the Government’s emergency anti-terrorism powers for nearly three years has inexplicably been released.
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, revealed today that he was revoking the certificate under which the man - an Algerian known as ‘D’ - has been detained.
He was freed from Woodhill high security prison near Milton Keynes just after 3pm. D’s solicitor, Natalia Garcia, said: “I told him this morning that he was to be released.
“He was absolutely choked. All he could say was ‘I don’t understand, I don’t understand’. He feels he’s been locked up for three years just on a whim.”
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D was among the first people to be held without charge or trial under the emergency measures, and has been in a high-security prison since December 17, 2001.
Mr Blunkett said in a written ministerial statement: “I have concluded, on the basis of all the information available to me, that the weight of evidence in relation to D at the current time does not justify the continuance of the certificate.”
D lost an appeal against his imprisonment last October, when the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) backed the Home Secretary’s decision to hold him. The detainee was described by SIAC as a “practised and accomplished liar” whose attempts to distance himself from other terror suspects could not be believed. The detention was upheld again by SIAC in July.
D was one of 17 foreigners originally detained in high security prisons under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (ATCSA), passed within weeks of the September 11 atrocities.
Mr Blunkett said the man would be released from prison “as soon as is practical”. He added: “In revoking D’s certificate I have made clear that any further activities that are assessed to be a threat to national security could lead to him being certified again.
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“The powers in ... the ATCSA are a vital weapon in our armoury against suspected foreign terrorists who pose a threat to national security. These powers have only been used in a small number of cases when an individual could not be prosecuted through normal procedures, and could not be removed from the UK principally because of our international human rights obligations.
“Nonetheless, all of those detained are entitled to leave the UK at any time they choose, as two of those certified have already chosen to do.”
The Home Secretary told SIAC last year that D was an “active supporter” of the GIA (Groupe Islamique Armee, or Armed Islamic Group) and that his activities had included procuring “terrorist-related equipment”. The Home Secretary also told the commission that D had been involved in fraud to fund terrorist activities and had links with Abu Qatada, the extremist Muslim cleric suspected of links to al Qaeda, and who is detained under the same legislation.
The GIA is a banned organisation in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Mr Justice Ouseley, chairman of the SIAC, said in his judgment from last October: “We regard D as a practised and accomplished liar.
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“We do not believe his excuses, his claims to ignorance, his attempts to distance himself from other terrorist suspects, or his assertions that he has nothing to do with the GIA or other terrorist organisations, networks or activities.”
D had extensive contacts with people involved in terrorist planning and activity, which exceeded social contact and suggested he was himself supporting international terrorism in various ways, said the judge.
“Insofar as his detention interferes with his family life, we regard that interference as amply justified in the interests of national security.”
D was arrested and prosecuted in France in 1994 for membership of the GIA, and sentenced to a period of imprisonment - though he was released having been in prison for 35 months awaiting trial.
SIAC heard that D arrived in the UK illegally in May 1998 and applied for asylum in March 1999. He was refused asylum in February 2001, and lodged an appeal that was still pending when Mr Blunkett certified his removal under the 2001 Act just before Christmas that year.
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Twelve of the 17 ATCSA detainees remain in jail, including D. ‘M’ was freed on appeal, ‘G’ was released to house arrest, one was detained under other powers and two have chosen to leave the UK, as allowed under the legislation.