A JIHADIST preacher who has been living on benefits for the last ten years and has a "historic association" to Osama bin Laden will be allowed to stay in Britain because of human rights laws
The Yemeni-born imam - who cannot be named because he is protected under the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) - will stay in the UK despite being denied citizenship because of his "extremist" and "anti-Western" beliefs.
The preacher - referred to in documents as FM - has spent more than a decade fighting for British citizenship, costing the UK taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds.
The special court ruled that the 50-year-old, who is believed to have been living on benefits since his arrival in 1995, is not allowed a British passport because of links to Osama bin Laden and extremist views.
He has been detained up to five times at UK airports under terror laws - while his home has been searched by officers who seized "items".
The imam, who preaches at a large north England mosque, also regularly travels to Yemen – a hotspot for al-Qaeda-linked terrorist cells.
But the Home Office cannot deport him because it would breach his human rights.
David Cameron recently announced a five-year plan to tackle homegrown extremism and counter the "warped" extremist ideology and the journey to radicalisation.
However critics argue that the Prime Minister will find it tough if foreign-born convicted hate preachers cannot be deported.
A study, conducted by an anti-extremist think tank, has shown that 28 foreign-born convicted terrorists and suspects have used the Human Rights Act to prevent their extradition from the UK.
They often claim that because they come from countries such as Yemen, Algeria and Egypt they would face torture or mistreatment if they returned.
Both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights act protect individuals against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Home Secretary Theresa May had blocked the preacher's bid for a British passport last year - 11 years after he first applied for it.
Mrs May used "secret and reliable sources" to establish that since his arrival FM had visited numerous mosques where he "preached extremist Muslim and anti-Western views", concluding that he had been a "supporter of jihad".
According to SIAC he has "openly claimed a historic association with Osama bin Laden and/or sympathy with him".
But the preacher's lawyers argued that the refusal of citizenship was a breach of his human rights – insisting that he has never advocated violence and that the mosque would never encourage sermons "which use threatening, insulting or abusive words or behaviour".
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.
Last month it was revealed that UK taxpayerscould have to pay millions in compensation to suspected Taliban fighters under the Human Rights Act after a court ruled that it was "unlawful" for British forces to hold Afghani gunman Serdar Mohammed for 110 days without charge in 2010.
He successfully sued the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last year – claiming his human rights were breached because he was held beyond a 96-hour time limit.
Penny Mordaunt, the Armed Forces Minister, slammed the ruling and vowed to appeal to the High Court.
She said: "The notion that dangerous insurgents cannot be detained for more than a few hours is ludicrous.
"If the law does not allow that then the law must change."
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