The alleged leader of an al-Qaeda plot to bomb targets in north-west England has won his appeal against deportation.

A special immigration court said Abid Naseer was an al-Qaeda operative - but could not be deported because he faced torture or death back home in Pakistan.

Mr Naseer, 23, was one of 10 Pakistani men arrested last April as part of a massive counter-terrorism operation in Liverpool and Manchester.

Student, Ahmad Faraz Khan, also 23, won his appeal on similar grounds.

The security services believed the men were planning to attack within days of their arrest, but neither was charged.

'Stigmatised for life'

A Conservative minister indicated the government would not, after all, be changing the law to allow the deportations to go ahead,.

This is despite a Tory election promise that the Human Rights Act would be abolished.

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, said she would not be appealing against the ruling, handed down by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

She said: "We are disappointed that the court has ruled that Abid Naseer and Ahmad Faraz Khan should not be deported to Pakistan, which we were seeking on national security grounds.

"As the court agreed, they are a security risk to the UK. We are now taking all possible measures to ensure they do not engage in terrorist activity."

The lawyer for both men, Gareth Peirce, said the ruling was the "worst of all possible worlds" because they were flagged up as being involved in terrorism based on evidence "one is not told".

She said: "It's no victory even though the young men have won, in the sense that they have been stigmatised for life and put at risk or even further risk in their own country on the basis of the shocking phenomenon of secret evidence.

"It's no way to conduct justice. If people have committed a crime, put them on trial."

The ruling effectively means that MI5's case against two of the men has been supported by the courts even though neither of them was ever charged with a criminal offence.

Two other men also arrested in the raids lost their deportation appeals. Abdul Wahab Khan, 27, and Tariq Ur Rehman, 38, had already returned to Pakistan.

In his judgement, Mr Justice Mitting said Mr Naseer was sending e-mails to a contact in Pakistan - and that the recipient was an "al-Qaeda operative".

The e-mails were said to be at the heart of the plot and culminated in a message sent to Pakistan in April 2009 in which Mr Naseer said he had set a date to marry, something MI5 said was code for an attack date.

"We are satisfied that Naseer was an al-Qaeda operative who posed and still poses a serious threat to the national security of the United Kingdom," the judgement said.

It added: "Subject to the issue of safety on return, it is conducive to the public good that he should be deported."

The judge said Ahmad Faraz Khan had become a "knowing party" to the plan because he had "undergone a radical change in view" between leaving home and studying in the UK.

But in both cases, Mr Justice Mitting said it was impossible to return the men to Pakistan.

"There is a long and well-documented history of disappearances, illegal detention and of the torture and ill-treatment of those detained, usually to produce information, a confession or compliance," said the judgment.

Turning to the three men who have already left the UK, Mr Justice Mitting said Abdul Wahab Khan and Tariq ur Rehman were committed Islamists who knew of Mr Naseer's plan.

Student Shoaib Khan, however, won his appeal, with the court saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing against him.

His lawyer Amjad Malik told the BBC that his 31-year-old client, who is in Pakistan wanted to return to the UK to resume his studies.

The government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, said: "We do not want people who have been held to be terrorists walking our streets. We therefore have to start looking for a different way of dealing with individual cases.

He said he hoped the government would look at ways of ensuring people would be treated properly if they were returned to their native countries.

BBC political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has suggested the coalition government will, for now, retain the Human Rights Act.

This is despite a promise in the Conservative manifesto to replace it with "a British Bill of Rights".

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

Mr Quick resigned after he was photographed carrying clearly visible secret documents outside 10 Downing Street.

Police brought their operation forward and raided a series of locations across Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire, eventually detaining 11 men.

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

Mr Quick told the BBC that at the time they feared an imminent attack.

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

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.

ghosty wrote:wow....torys are gonna abolish the human rights act. That makes me feel all warm inside -.-

ghosty wrote:wow....torys are gonna abolish the human rights act.

Gwar! wrote:It's about time. Not once has it been used to actually protect someones "Human Rights". All it has been used for is to protect Terrorists and abused to let thugs roam the streets.

SilverMK2 wrote:

Gwar! wrote:It's about time. Not once has it been used to actually protect someones "Human Rights". All it has been used for is to protect Terrorists and abused to let thugs roam the streets.

To paraphrase your avatar, I say!

I personally can't say these people were involved in actual terrorist plots (as far as I know nothing has been released to show that they were) and this set of deportations could be a massive step towards people just "vanishing" in the night vis Nazi Germany ans Soviet Russia. They've not had trials (again as far as I am aware), just the nod and wink from the anti-terror establishment that these are "bad men".

I have no problem with deporting people who have proven links with terrorists, and people who have been proven worthy of deporting (no matter how much danger they would be in if they were actually deported), but I do like to see this demonstrated in court, rather than behind the scenes.

SilverMK2 wrote:@ Filbert - Sorry, my comment was not meant to be linked with the HRA, I was just expressing support for what Gwar! said and then carried on with my own thing.

Soup and a roll wrote:The Government should definitely be able to ship people back to the barbaric countries they escaped from decades ago without revealing any evidence (which would expose state secrets) to face torture and prosecution. They all deserve it because, lets face it, no smoke without fire amirite? I'm sure that nice David guy I see on the television will keep us all safe in our beds from the bad men.

mattyrm wrote:
He IS in Al Queda, and we cant kick him out?!

The Green Git wrote:Wait... he wants to KILL YOU and you won't deport him because he might be tortured?

This is the problem with you Limeys. Conquerors guilt. Send him back to his third world gak hole and let the chips fall where they may. You can't save the world.

mattyrm wrote:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8688501.stm

A special immigration court said Abid Naseer was an al-Qaeda operative - but could not be deported because he faced torture or death back home in Pakistan.