Terror Suspect's Control Order Restictions to Stay Says Judge

Terror suspect: Control Order Must Stay Says Judge

A judge has upheld a control order on a terror suspect after it emerged security chiefs fear he returned to the UK after receiving explosives training.

The High Court judge also backed the Home Secretary's refusal to confirm or deny the suspect, who is married with two children and a naturalised British citizen living here, was interrogated abroad by UK security services.

The original order was imposed by Home Secretary Theresa May amid fears the suspect wanted to travel to Somalia for terror-related activity.

But two judgments handed down by Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting in Cardiff, state the belief that the suspect attended a terror camp in Somalia.

The judgments today were triggered by the Home Secretary's "neither confirm nor deny" policy (NCND) which came under attack in the High Court earlier this year.

A QC acting for the suspect, who can only be referred to as CE, who is 27 and originally from Iran, dismissed the policy as "absurd" as it applied to his client.

Richard Hermer QC argued for the disclosure of documents relating to CE's alleged interrogation by UK security services when he was in Kenya in 2007.

At the time the QC told Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting in London, the NCND policy was a barrier to his client gaining information to defend himself against terror accusations and argued that the interrogations relating to CE's alleged previous activities in Somalia were a "central plank" of the Government's case against him.

As a result access to "potentially exculpatory" documents relating to the interrogations was impossible while nobody would confirm or deny they had ever taken place.

"To refuse to confirm the existence of an interrogation to the person who was interrogated is absurd."

But Mr Justice Lloyd Jones sided with the Home Secretary, despite acknowledging "exceptions" have been made to the policy.

"In the present case the fact of the interview, if it took place, will of course be known to CE," he stated in the Open Judgment on Preliminary Issue. However, that consideration alone will not justify a departure from the principle in the present case requiring the Secretary of State to confirm or deny it took place.

"It is necessary to have regard to wider considerations, in particular the likely implications in other cases."

The second open judgment, which upholds the control order first imposed in March, also upholds a number of conditions.

Among them is a ban on CE attending prayers at a named community centre and a ban on connecting to the internet from home.

It also makes it clear the Security Services assessed CE as having attended a terrorist training camp, with others from the UK, in Somalia during 2006/7.

While there it is believed he "may well" have had training in "the use of explosives and other harmful techniques".

It adds: "However, the Security Service does not maintain that CE was tasked to undertake an attack in the United Kingdom.

"The Security Service maintains that the group was tasked to return to the United Kingdom to carry out facilitation activities and to recruit individuals to work on behalf of al Qaida and or al Shabaab."

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