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EU court orders UK to unfreeze Abu Qatada's assets
European judges today overturned an order freezing the assets of Abu Qatada, the radical Muslim cleric, on the ground that its implementation breached his fundamental rights. The ruling in the European Court of Justice is a further blow to the Government's counter terror policies after the Law Lords' judgment that suspects held under control orders must be given details of the allegations against them.

Qatada, once described as Osama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador" in Europe, was added to a United Nations sanctions blacklist freezing the funds of associates of Bin Laden, al-Qaeda or the Taleban. The ruling today means that Qatada, currently being held in a top security prison pending deportation, will regain access to his accounts and any other assets in two months and ten days if the British Government does not appeal.

The European Court of Justice ruling applies to all his assets held throughout Europe. In a case last year the court quashed an order freezing the assets of Yasin Kadi, a Saudi businessman who had been listed by the UN as an al-Qaeda associate. In the Kadi case the court ruled that his rights had been breached because he had not been given the opportunity to challenge evidence against him. The court found breaches of his fundamental rights -- in particular, rights of defence, the right to effective judicial review, and the right to property.

In today's ruling, the EU judges said: "Mr Othman [Abu Qatada] finds himself in a factual and legal situation in every way comparable to that of Mr Kadi... The court must therefore conclude that the council adopted the regulation in breach of Mr Othman's fundamental rights. Consequently, the court annuls the regulation in so far as it freezes Mr Othman's funds." The EU list is regularly updated to take account of changes in the central list drawn up by the UN Security Council's Sanctions Committee. In April the European Commission published plans to change the way it implements the UN's terrorist blacklist to take account of the Kadi ruling.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the Government accepted the judgment from the EU court. He said targeted sanctions played an important role in countering the threat posed by international terrorism. "We accept, however, that the application of targeted measures to individuals and entities must take account of their fundamental rights and respect due process." He said the Government was working with the EU and the UN to reform the sanctions regimes to ensure they satisfied both these requirements, he said. "The UK will work with EU partners to address the reasons identified by the court as to the why they found in favour of Mr Othman."

Qatada, a Jordanian national has lived in the UK since 1993. Since February 2001 he has been arrested several times under anti-terrorism legislation and a government decision to extradite him was upheld by the House of Lords in February this year.
Does this mean that the EU is ahead of the UN in the competition for the most submissive dhimmi organization?

Best British tabloid headline:
Give Mr Beardie his dosh back say Europrats

Posted by: ryuge 2009-06-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=271814