The decision to allow a Turkish heroin dealer to stay in Britain to protect his ‘right to a family life’ has prompted fresh scrutiny over the use of the European Convention on Human Rights by criminals seeking to dodge deportation.
The 70-year-old man, who is believed to be one of the country’s biggest drug dealers, won his bid after claiming that he would be at risk of persecution if he returned to Turkey due to being an Alevi Kurd.
This is despite the tribunal hearing that the serious criminal, who was granted anonymity, has visited the Mediterranean country eight times since first arriving on British shores.
He eventually won his appeal on the basis of Article 8 of the ECHR, which protects the right to a family life, even though he had an extramarital affair during one of his return trips.
The drug kingpin is just one of a long list of serious criminals who have used the ECHR to fight deportation from Britain.
They range from convicted terrorists and ISIS supporters to a paedophile who abused a 13-year-old girl.
Also among those who have made use of the legislation is an Italian-born man who stabbed a headmaster to death outside the gates of his school, and a father of four who was accused of fatally shooting a man in the head in his native Albania.
Below, rounds up some of the most notorious recent cases –
Fatmir Bleta – Alleged killer
Father of four Fatmir Bleta, 64, fled Albania in December 1998, two months after he allegedly shot a man in the head with a Kalashnikov rifle.
After arriving in Britain he sought asylum – falsely claiming to be Kosovan. This request was refused, but he was granted indefinite leave to remain and gained British citizenship in 2017.
He was convicted of making an untrue statement to procure a passport the following year, along with three other counts of dishonesty.
After completing a second jail sentence in 2018, the Home Office tried to deport him but it was argued that it would violate his family rights as it would be ‘unduly harsh’ on his wife and four children, who joined him in the UK in 2000, under Article 8 of the ECHR.
Earlier this year, it also emerged that two of Bleta’s children have been convicted and jailed for drug offences.
Daughter Sara, 28, a former actress, was jailed for four years for supplying class A and B drugs while son Dorian, 37, is serving an 18-year prison sentence for trafficking cocaine.
Wahbi Mohammed – The 21/7 plotter
Somali-born Wahbi Mohammed helped plot the 21/7 bombings – the failed attack designed to kill scores of commuters two weeks after the London 7/7 attacks in 2005 which claimed 52 lives.
Mohammed’s brother Ramzi Mohammed was a would-be suicide bomber but when his bomb malfunctioned, Wahbi helped him try to escape.
Wahbi was jailed for 17 years, reduced to 13 years on appeal. He was freed in 2013 and his lawyers have since used human rights laws to resist his deportation, saying he risks being tortured.
Mohammed, 41, is registered as living in a smart semi-detached house on a leafy street in south-west London.
When the Mail visited his address in October, the property’s smart doorbell was answered remotely by two burly men who arrived moments later in a flashy Range Rover Evoque SUV, worth £45,000.
Ismail Abdurahman – Hid would-be suicide bomber
Another 21/7 terrorist, Somali-born Ismail Abdurahman, provided would-be suicide bomber Hussain Osman with a safehouse from police.
A judge said that if the bombers had been caught sooner, Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian man, may not have been shot dead after armed police mistook him for one of the attackers.
Abdurahman, 42, now lives in a three-storey terraced home on a quiet tree-lined street in London’s Peckham Rye.
A source said he would likely never be deported because it would infringe his human rights, as Somalia authorities would likely mistreat him for his crimes.
In 2016, ministers were ordered to hand Abdurahman £13,600 of taxpayers’ money for his legal fees after the Islamist convict successfully argued he had been denied the right to a fair trial.
He was initially treated as a witness, and so quizzed without a lawyer. However, when the terrorist began to incriminate himself, police delayed allowing him access to legal advice and did not tell him of his right to silence.
Ahmed Alsyed – the ISIS fanboy
Extremist Ahmed Alsyed Alsyed was given sanctuary in Britain after leaving his homeland Sudan, but had his ‘heart set’ on joining Islamic State.
Footage recovered from Alsyed’s phone showed him posing in combat fatigues and making a hand gesture associated with IS at a paintball camp in Surrey.
Alsyed, of West London, was jailed for four and a half years in 2018 after pleading guilty to the collection of terrorist information, preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications.
Now 26, he was last known to be living in a £280,000 semi-detached house in Twickenham.
Mourad Mosdefaoui – ISIS recruiter
Mourad Mosdefaoui, a recruiter who lured youngsters to Islamic State on social media, was jailed for two years in 2015.
His asylum claims have been refused but he cannot be deported, after arguing that being returned to Algeria may breach his human rights.
Mosdefoui, who is now living in Edinburgh, told the Mail earlier this year that he had gone three times to the Algerian consulate in London but was rejected.
He said: ‘They said because of the human rights stuff [they can’t deport me], but if they can’t deport me why do they leave me like this?
‘I have no access to a dentist, or the GP, I have no work, no public funds’.
Learco Chindamo – Headteacher killer
Learco Chindamo was just 15 years old when he fatally stabbed Philip Lawrence after the headteacher rushed out the gates of his London secondary school to defend a pupil who was being attacked.
The killer was controversially freed on licence in 2010 after serving 14 years for the 1995 killing, which shocked the nation.
However, an immigration tribunal ruled that Chindamo, who was born in Italy, could not be forced to leave because it would breach his human rights, in particular his ‘right to family life’.
This was due to Chindamo having ‘no ties’ to the country.
Jumaa Kater Saleh – Paedophile
Jumaa Kater Saleh was convicted as part of a predatory sex gang for the ‘deliberate, targeted abuse of a young and vulnerable girl’, who was aged 13 at the time.
The Sudanese man arrived in the UK in a lorry before seeking asylum in Britain, and despite having his bid rejected he was given leave to remain until he turned 18. But due to a backlog of cases, he stayed after this date.
Following his sex offence conviction, he was sentenced to four years in a young offenders’ institution.
After being let out in May 2009 he was due to be automatically deported, but following a legal challenge under Article 3 of the ECHR – which protects against ‘inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ – he was allowed to stay.
During his legal fight he was kept in a detention centre for eight months. The paedophile was later paid damages for the time he was held.
Abu Qatada – Hate preacher
Islamic cleric Abu Qatada was shielded from deportation by the Human Rights Act for nearly 12 years.
Despite being wanted for terror offences in his home country of Jordan, the Court of Appeal ruled that removing him from the UK would breach his rights.
This decision was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights, which blocked the UK from deporting him because there was a risk that evidence obtained through torture may be used against him.
He was finally kicked out after Jordan signed a treaty insisting that no such evidence would be presented.