An alleged Muslim extremist from Ashby who claimed his confinement to a single cell at Belmarsh Prison amounted to "torture" and "inhuman treatment" has had his compensation bid thrown out by a top judge. The man — a Muslim convert brought up in Ashby, who cannot be identified for legal reasons — claimed that putting him on his own brought back ’terrible memories’ of his torture and mistreatment when he was earlier imprisoned in Syria on suspicion of being an al Qaeda ’link man’. He attempted suicide while held in a single cell at Belmarsh in April and May last year, and risked his own life by refusing to take either food or drink for more than two weeks.
His lawyers sought damages on his behalf from the Home Office, claiming his treatment at the jail amounted to Â’inhuman or degrading treatmentÂ’, banned by the Human Rights Convention. However, Mr Justice Irwin, sitting at LondonÂ’s High Court, dismissed his case, ruling that, despite his genuine distress at being held in a single cell, his treatment was Â’reasonable and proportionateÂ’ and nursing and medical staff at Belmarsh had done their best for him. His cell at Belmarsh was Â’really very differentÂ’ from the solitary confinement in which he had earlier been held by the Syrian authorities and the judge concluded: "What was done fell very far short of torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment."
The 27-year-old, who converted to Islam as a teenager, was arrested by Syrian police in 2006, while studying in the country. He was accused of being Â’an extremist Muslim, with violent Jihadist beliefsÂ’, but denied he had any plans to join the insurgency in Iraq. Home Office lawyers did not challenge the Â’broad pictureÂ’ the man painted of his mistreatment by the Syrian authorities, which included being exposed to extreme heat and cold, held in overcrowded conditions and beaten on his feet with a flex.
After his deportation back to the UK in 2007, he was made the subject of a control order under the Prevention of Terrorism Act on grounds that he intended to travel abroad for terrorist purposes and had acted as a link between UK extremists and al Qaeda. The Home Office said he had Â’openly advocated support for violent extremist activitiesÂ’ and been Â’involved in attack planningÂ’ overseas. He was remanded at high-security Belmarsh in late 2007 for allegedly conspiring to breach his control order.
At the High Court, his lawyers said his confinement in a single cell brought back nightmares and flashbacks of the torture he suffered at the hands of the Syrian authorities. After being held in solitary in the Middle East, a single cell made him Â’extremely panickyÂ’, the court heard. Dismissing his damages claim, Mr Justice Irwin said the man had been engaged in Â’something of a battle for controlÂ’ with the prison authorities and, amid an atmosphere of intense distrust, his confinement in a single cell was both reasonable and proportionate.