Algerian terror suspect linked to Osama Bin Laden wins 21-year legal battle to stay in UK

A wheelchair-bound Algerian terror suspect linked to Osama Bin Laden has won his 21-year legal battle to live in the UK, with the judge saying the threat of deportation has affected his mental health, it emerged on Tuesday.

The man, who can only be referred to as 'G' due to legal reasons, has defeated repeated UK government attempts to deport him despite being accused of helping to send young British Muslims to terror training camps abroad, according to British media reports.

The wheelchair-bound man came to the UK to claim asylum in August, 1995 using a false French passport. But in 2001, the UK government decided to deport him after evidence emerged that he was a suspected terrorist and a risk to national security.

The UK Home Office claimed he was an active supporter of the Algerian terrorist group Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), which has links to Osama's terrorist network.

"Your activities on behalf of the group and of extremist fighters in Chechnya include sponsoring young Muslims in the UK to go to Afghanistan to train for Jihad," the government told him in the court.

In his long-running legal battle, G twice lost appeals to his deportation but because of human rights laws, the UK government has been unable to remove him to Algeria.

Now in a ruling last month by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, Justice Collins said that G no longer poses a risk to national security and that limiting his right to live in the UK threatened his mental health.

"I am satisfied as is shown by the history that there is now no reasonable need for limited leave. The possibility of removal is remote in the extreme," he said. A spokesperson for the UK Home Office said the government had received the judgement and was considering its options.