Terror suspect wins right to stay

An Algerian terror suspect has won the right to live in Britain amid fears the extremist will take his own life if he is kicked out of the country.

The North African fanatic, who is believed to have provided fake passports and travel arrangements to terrorists, does not dispute posing a threat to national security.

But in a blow to the Home Office, the secretive Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) allowed the married 43-year-old to remain on British soil amid concerns his human rights will be breached as he is likely to commit suicide once returned to Algeria.

In the same judgment, Mr Justice Mitting - who recently allowed hate preacher Abu Qatada to stay in the UK - told six other Algerian terror suspects they must leave.

But the senior immigration judge warned there was still "no end in sight" to attempting to put the men on a flight home, in a sign further appeals are imminent.

Among the six men were two fundamentalists with links to an alleged 2003 plot to commit mass murder using the poison ricin and cohorts of hook-handed preacher Abu Hamza.

Mr Justice Mitting said: "The objectives of the appellants and of the secretary of state - respectively, to be able to live free of restrictions and permanently in the UK and to deport the appellants to Algeria - are nowhere near attainment."

The decision comes after a devastating terror attack last week on a gas plant in Algeria, which claimed the lives of at least 39 foreign hostages, including six Britons.

In a separate note, Siac said the judgment was drafted before the In Amenas attack and it was too early to say if it would have an impact on its assessment of Algeria.

In the wake of the crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to put terrorism "right at the top of the agenda" for Britain's presidency of the G8 nations in 2013.