exclusive: third of cases won by terrorists, murderers and lags exclusive by tom newton dunn, political editor 17th august 2015, 11:01 pm updated: 5th april 2016, 8:00 pm a third of those who have won against britain at the european court of human rights are terrorists, prisoners or criminals, figures show. among claimants the court found in favour of since 1975 are murderers, terrorists in iraq and ira gunmen. its recent controversial judgments include refusing a home office deportation order for islamic hate preacher abu qatada and insisting prisoners must have the vote. the figures showing that the 297 victories against the uk included 94 prisoners, terrorists or criminals are revealed in a glossy dossier produced by echr-supporting pressure group rightsinfo. it is a response to criticisms of the strasbourg court by tory ministers and the sun. commons justice committee chairman bob neill mp said: “this is well beyond what any sensible person would say is real human rights. “it’s mission creep, law made by judges who are not judges and many from countries with questionable human rights and very little judicial experience. “political pressure groups take advantage of that naivety, which costs the british taxpayer considerable sums.” it costs £286million a year to fund the euro judges’ governing body, the council of europe and £23million of that comes from british taxes. since 1959, the uk has won only 41 per cent of 513 echr cases. rightsinfo’s adam wagner said: “people accused of crimes or convicted of offences have human rights too, so it isn’t surprising that they have featured in 40 years of cases.” the fanatic hate preacher abu qatada reuters 3 abu qatada won the right to stay in britain rather than be deported to his homeland jordan after echr judges said there was a risk evidence obtained by torture could be used against him in a terror trial. in that case qatada, described as osama bin laden’s right-hand man in europe, would not get a fair trial. the strasbourg court’s 2012 decision overturned a ruling by uk law lords. qatada had been convicted in jordan in 1999 in his absence of a conspiracy to carry out bombings. he was finally returned in 2013 after jordan agreed torture evidence would not be used. prisoner john hirst first won the right for convicted criminals to vote following a european court ruling in 2005. hirst had previously lost his claim at the high court in 2001 but took the case to europe and won. no uk government has legislated on the issue despite four rulings in hirst’s favour by the strasbourg-based court. hirst who served 25 years for the unprovoked manslaughter of his landlady, said: “you don’t lose your status in civil society just because you’re in prison — you are still a member of the public.” the ira men ulster unionist mp ken maginnis 3 ten ira men killed by soldiers and the royal ulster constabulary had their human rights violated, the echr ruled in 2001. its judges said the authorities failed to conduct proper inquiries into the deaths. the uk government was ordered to pay each of the ira men’s families £10,000. tory and ulster unionist mps said the ruling was a disgrace and an insult to those who tried to keep the peace. unionist ken maginnis said: “it now seems common practice as far as the european courts are concerned to pander to militant irish republicanism.”
european court of killers’ rights