Birmingham Suspect Terror Measures 'Not Degrading'

24 November 2014, 10:10 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A Birmingham man suspected of fundraising for an Islamist militant group has had a human rights claim thrown out by a judge at the High Court.

The Somali national, who has not been named by identified as a married father of seven who lives in Birmingham, is suspected of fundraising for the Al-Shabaab group. 

He was handed a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measure by the Home Office after MI5 assessed him as posing a risk. 

The man complained that the measure was degrading and inhuman, but a judge has dismissed his claim after a High Court hearing in London.

Mr Justice Ouseley said the man had arrived in the UK more than a decade ago, had been granted asylum and leave to remain, and had worked as an imam.

Six years ago he was charged with fundraising for Al-Shabaab but acquitted.

Two years ago he was made the subject of a TPIM after an assessment by MI5. Agents said he had returned to Somalia, met senior Islamic extremists and couriered funds and equipment for terrorism-related purposes.

They said he had recruited and radicalised people - and helped them travel to Somalia for terrorism-related activities, as well as creating extremist websites raising money for Al-Shabaab.

The Tpim required him to live at home and stay in at night, barred him from having travel documents and imposed limits on who he could associate with, his use of bank accounts and computer devices, and required him to wear a monitoring tag on his ankle.

The man, who said he had mental health problems, complained that his rights under the European Convention On Human Rights - which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment - were being breached. But Mr Justice Ouseley said the effects of the Tpim did not.