An Islamist double murderer has been awarded £7,500 and the taxpayer must foot his £234,000 legal fees after winning a legal case over his rights in prison.
The High Court ruled Fuad Awale’s human rights were breached after he was effectively kept in solitary confinement for more than a year.
Awale is serving a life sentence for shooting two teenagers in the head in a planned execution over drugs on a Milton Keynes estate in 2011.
In 2013, he was sentenced to a further six years after he and another inmate took a prison officer hostage amid the fallout over Fusilier Lee Rigby’s murder by Islamic extremists.
Awale and one of his accomplices threateened to kill the officer unless the British government released hate preacher Abu Qatada.
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Afterwards he was moved to a close supervision centre (CSC), a segregated unit for dangerous prisoners in which contact between inmates is heavily restricted.
The court was told he requested to associate with one of Rigby’s killers butthis was denied over ‘counter-terrorism concerns’.
From March 2023 to the time of the High Court ruling in September 2024 he had not been allowed to associate with any other inmates.
That ruling found his treatment breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which protects the right to a private life, which has been interpreted as including a right to friendships.
Mrs Justice Ellenbogen stated: ‘The degree of interference with the claimant’s private life which has resulted from his removal from association has been of some significance and duration.’
On Thursday the figures of the compensation settlement were revealed after being outlined in a letter to Awale by David Lammy, the justice secretary.
Mr Lammy said ministers are considering legal changes to stop criminals using the ECHR as a ‘barrier to us protecting national security’.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said the ruling could spark a flood of litigation by other inmates and risk prison officers’ safety if violent offenders are not segregated where appropriate.
He told The Telegraph: ‘It’s a sick joke that taxpayers are handing this man £7,500 in compensation and footing a legal bill of over £230,000.
‘This is the reality of the ECHR: it prioritises the “rights” of terrorists to associate with other extremists over the safety of our prison officers.
‘Labour are cowing to terrorists and the human rights brigade. They must introduce emergency legislation to carve these monsters out of the ECHR immediately. If they don’t, we will as soon as Parliament returns.’
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