Britain 'Wrong' to Freeze Assets of Hate Preacher Qatada

Jordanian cleric Abu Qatada has been living in Britain since 1993. In that time, he has claimed tens of thousands of pounds in benefits for his wife and five children.

After the 11th September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, Qatada was identified as one of al-Qaeda's top men in Europe, and he was added to a list of known terror suspects, meaning his assets were frozen throughout the European Union.

Qatada is currently being held in HMP Belmarsh as the British government struggle in vain through the forests of red tape they created to deport him to Jordan - a move he is fighting, because presumably he won't be kept in the style to which we've let him become accustomed.

Obviously these appeals cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds.

The Law Lords have ruled that he can be deported, but he is struggling on in the European Court of Human Rights, a body which has already awarded him £2,500 in compensation because his detention is 'unlawful'.

Well, if they get their way he will be able to access that cash soon - because the European Court of First Instance has just ruled that putting him on the terror list and freezing his assets in the first place was illegal:

EU judges overruled the Government and the United Nations yesterday by unfreezing the assets of Al Qaeda 'ambassador' Abu Qatada.

The verdict, reached on human rights grounds by the EU's Court of First Instance, paves the way for the fanatic to receive a compensation payout controversially awarded against the British Government earlier this year.

The latest case goes back to October 2001, in the wake of 9/11, when Qatada was put on an EU list of terrorist suspects whose money and other assets in Europe are blocked.

The UN Security Council's sanctions committee had named him as associated with Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda.

All member states are instructed to freeze 'the funds and other financial assets controlled directly or indirectly by such persons or entities'.

When Qatada was awarded £2,500 by the European Court of Human Rights for being 'unlawfully detained' in Belmarsh high security prison, South East London, he could not lay his hands on the cash.

But now the Court of First Instance, which is linked to the European Court of Justice, has said that putting him on the terror list breached his 'fundamental rights'.

It's a real shame that the rest of us don't have the right to live in a country capable of controlling who is allowed in and who must leave.