The British government is attempting to overturn a court ruling that prevents foreign terrorist suspects from being deported from Britain to Algeria and other countries with poor human rights records.
Lawyers acting for the government have found a way of mounting an early challenge to the 1996 ruling from the European court of human rights in Strasbourg, which blocks the removal of suspects to any country where they might face abuse or torture.
Britain has been given permission to intervene in a case already lodged against The Netherlands at the Strasbourg court by a 22-year-old Algerian challenging deportation, according to a spokesperson for the court.
Ministers had mentioned the possibility of finding such a case but not that they had identified a pending case and were already intervening as an interested party.
The case is being brought by Mohammed Ramzy, who was accused, but acquitted, of involvement in a cell encouraging young Muslims to go on suicide missions. He unsuccessfully claimed asylum and is challenging a decision to deport him, arguing that he would face political persecution in Algeria. The case has been given priority and the court could deliver a ruling by the end of next year.
By contrast, any challenge to a deportation order by a suspect held in Britain would take years to resolve. Before a case can go to Strasbourg, all possible routes of appeal in British courts must be exhausted first, up to the House of Lords.
The government hopes that the Strasbourg court will reconsider its ruling in the 1996 case of Karamjit Singh Chahal, a Sikh militant who successfully argued that he should not be sent back to India because he would face a real risk of inhuman treatment by the authorities there.
The Strasbourg judges ruled that sending him back would breach article three of the European convention on human rights, the prohibition on torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. A majority of the judges ruled that, in deciding whether a proposed deportee should be returned home, the court could not balance the right of the individual not to be tortured against the interests of the state in national security. The Human Rights Act, which became law in 2000, obliges British judges to take into account the case law of the European court of human rights in reaching decisions.
In the Ramzy case, the British government has been given permission to intervene and has until October 17 to present its written arguments. It will argue that the minority of judges in the Chahal case — who would have allowed the balancing exercise — were right, and that their reasoning should be followed in the Ramzy case.
”It would be proper to invite the court in Strasbourg to reconsider its views,” said the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith. A ruling in the government’s favour would improve the chances of persuading British judges to allow terrorist suspects to be sent back to their home countries under no-torture agreements. — Â