Outrage at payouts to terror suspects; HUMAN RIGHTS 'BREACHED'.

Byline: By JACK DOYLE 

COMPENSATION awards totalling nearly pounds 23,000 for a group of foreign terror suspects including Abu Qatada were condemned as "disgusting" yesterday.

The European Court of Human Rights handed Qatada - once described as "Osama bin Laden's right hand man in Europe" - pounds 2,500 and similar sums to eight other men.

Strasbourg judges ruled the Government's policy of detaining the men without trial in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks had breached their human rights.

The men,whowere arrested and taken to Belmarsh high security prison, were also handed costs of pounds 53,000 - bringing the total bill to nearly pounds 75,000.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "This decision will horrify most reasonable people in the UK.

"It shows just how incompetent the Government has been at managing the problem of preachers of hate and, frankly, it makes a mockery of the concept of human rights if we can't protect ourselves against people who are out to destroy our society."

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said of Qatada: "This man hates everything Britain stands for, so it is disgusting that ordinary taxpayers are now forced to pay him thousands of pounds.

"We should have slung him out years ago as soon as his outrageous views became clear."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was "very disappointed" with the ruling.

She said: "Whilst I am very disappointed with any award, I recognise the court has made substantially lower awards than these men sought in viewof the fact these measures were devised in the face of a public emergency."

Awarding cash sums to nine out of 11 terror suspectswho brought the case, the human rights judges said the amounts were "substantially lower" than previous awards for unlawful detention because the measures were created to combat a public emergency.

But the court said the terms of the detention violated the men's right to liberty and security under the European Convention on Human Rights.

But they said the conditions in which the men were held did not amount to "inhuman and degrading treatment".

They agreed with the Law Lords that the measures, included in the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act of 2001, "discriminated unjustifiably" between UK nationals and foreigners.

Qatada, six Algerians, Palestinian Abu Rideh, and a Tunisian man were given sums of up to pounds 3,400. A Moroccan and a Frenchman, who left the country voluntarily after their arrest,were not awarded any compensation Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty said the sums amounted to pounds 2 a day for unlawful detention and were "hardly hitting the jackpot".

She added: "Whilst the damages will disappoint the detainees, they explode the myth of the human rights compensation culture."

CAPTION(S):

Muslim cleric Abu Qatada