‘Terror ringleader’ to stay in UK

Arrest: In broad daylight at Liverpool John Moores university

Five Pakistani students who were accused of planning a bomb attack will hear if they have won appeals against deportation from the UK.

The men were arrested last year in one of the UK’s most high-profile counter-terrorism operations.

The security services believed they were planning to attack within days, but none of the students was charged.

The group were told they would be banned from the UK, but five appealed, saying police and MI5 had got it wrong.

The controversial affair began last April when the Metropolitan Police’s then head of counter-terrorism, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, accidentally revealed details of the investigation.

Shortly afterwards, police raided a series of locations across Liverpool, Manchsester and Lancashire, eventually detaining 11 men.

Ass Com Bob Quick

Ten of them were students from Pakistan,who were all either close friends or loosely known to each other.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the time that the security services were "dealing with a very big terrorist plot".

A covert investigation by MI5 had led officers to believe that one of the men, Abid Naseer, was the leader of a cell that was being guided by al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

No explosives were found and all of the men were released without charge after two weeks.

But they were immediately detained again under immigration laws after the then Home Secretary sought their deportation saying they were still a threat to national security.

After several months in prison, all but two left the UK. The remaining pair, Abid Naseer and Ahmad Faraz Khan, say they want to stay in the UK.

They both deny the allegations that they are involved in terrorism or al-Qaeda.

Three of the detainees who left the country, Abdul Wahab Khan, Shoaib Khan and Tariq ur Rehmanare also appealing against the deportation order.

The decision over the men’s future will be taken by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

The semi-secret tribunal has public sessions, but also hears evidence from MI5 officers behind closed doors.

Its ruling on whether the deportations are fair will indicate whether the courts accept MI5’s assessment of the men.

In his own report into the investigation, Lord Carlile, the terrorism laws watchdog, said that none of the arrests had been made "on a full evidential foundation" but that officers had moved in because they feared for public safety.

He said that the police had been "probably right" to launch such a massive operation, with gun-point arrests in public places – but added that detectives should have sought the advice of specialist prosecutors much earlier.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *