Shattered, supine Britain is extremely solicitous of the human rights of jihadis like Baghdad Meziane, who would murder thousands of British non-Muslims if he could. British authorities are far tougher on counter-jihadis, whom they have moved energetically to demonize and drive out of the public discourse. And so the British political and media elites will before too long get what they have asked for: a society in chaos.
“The terror leader with links to Paris extremists we can’t kick out: Illegal immigrant from Algeria jailed in Britain is still here because he ‘has right to family life,'” by Lucy Osborne, Daily Mail, January 18, 2015:
A convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist with close links to the Paris massacre cannot be deported from Britain because it would breach his right to a family life, it emerged yesterday.
Baghdad Meziane was jailed for 11 years in 2003 for running a terror network recruiting jihadists and fund-raising for Al-Qaeda.
But despite a judge saying he was a dangerous man and should serve his full sentence then be deported, he was released from prison five years early and allowed to return to his family home in Leicester.
The 50-year-old is an associate of Djamel Beghal, a convicted terrorist whose wife and family live in Leicester and who is said to have mentored two of the Paris attackers while they were in jail together in France.
Britain is believed to have spent the past six years trying to deport Meziane, a father of two. The Home Office has repeatedly described him as a ‘danger to the community of the United Kingdom’.
The British-Algerian, who was born in the Midlands, successfully claimed that his deportation would breach his human right to a family life and that he might face torture if sent home.
He had close links to Beghal, who converted Amedy Coulibaly – the killer of four hostages in a kosher supermarket as well as a police woman in Paris – to radical Islamism while in jail in France.
Beghal – known as one of Al-Qaeda’s top recruiters in Europe – also heavily influenced Cherif Kouachi, one of the two brothers who committed the Charlie Hebdo attack on January 7 in which 11 people died.
He was initially imprisoned in France over a plot to blow up the US embassy in Paris. Under questioning – he claims he was tortured – he confessed to the plot, leading to the arrest of Meziane and other Algerians living in Leicester – Brahim Benmerzouga and Kamel Daoudi.
Daoudi was extradited to Paris and jailed. He was released in 2008 but France was unable to deport him, due again to the Human Rights Act, and he is under house arrest.
Meziane and Benmerzouga were jailed in the UK and are believed to have been released into probation hostels in 2009. Benmerzouga was subsequently deported to Algeria but Meziane is so far believed to have fought off attempts to remove him and is understood to be living in the Midlands with his family.
There is a growing row over whether the UK’s security agencies have adequate powers to tackle the terrorist threat. Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, told The Sunday Telegraph that the Meziane case highlighted the need to scrap the Human Rights Act. ‘It’s a nonsense that people who are a threat to our society are able to use their human rights to avoid being sent back to their home country when it is clear they have no regard for the human rights of our citizens,’ he said….
Indeed.