A double murderer has been awarded £7,500 compensation and taxpayers will foot a £234,000 legal bill after the High Court ruled his treatment in prison breached his human rights.
Fuad Awale was convicted in January 2013 of the execution-style shooting of two teenagers and given a life sentence with a minimum term of 38 years, then he was subsequently given a further six years for threatening to kill a prison officer.
Awale, a Muslim assessed to hold extremist beliefs, won a High Court case over the way decisions to house him in a close supervision centre (CSC) - segregated from the wider prison population because of the risks he poses - had impacted on his mental health and breached his human rights.
A series of events during his time in the CSC system meant that by the time of the High Court ruling in September 2024 he had not been able to associate with any other inmates since March 2023.
The High Court ruled that his treatment breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which protects the right to a private and family life.
Details of the compensation were revealed in a letter from Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy to shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick reported by The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Lammy said the Government would "keep under review" whether the ECHR was acting as a barrier to protecting national security.
Mr Jenrick told the Telegraph: "It's a sick joke that taxpayers are handing this man £7,500 in compensation and footing a legal bill of over £230,000.
"This is a double murderer and extremist who took a prison officer hostage.
"This is the reality of the ECHR: it prioritises the 'rights' of terrorists to associate with other extremists over the safety of our prison officers.
"Labour are cowing to terrorists and the human rights brigade. They must introduce emergency legislation to carve these monsters out of the ECHR immediately."
In his letter to Mr Jenrick, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "This Government will not be cowed by legal threats from prisoners.
"The separation centre remains an essential operational tool to protect the public and other prisoners and when dangerous radicalisers pose a risk, they will be placed in one.
"This Government is committed to the European Convention on Human Rights.
"Commitment does not mean complacency, however, and we must keep under review whether the application of the convention is acting as a barrier to us protecting national security."
