Human rights law stops Turkish drug baron, 52, being deported from Britain

A Turkish drug baron ruled by judges to be a ‘danger to the community’ cannot be deported from Britain because it would breach his human rights.

Despite being described as a ‘very major player’ in Britain’s heroin-smuggling trade, the 52-year-old – released from prison in January after serving two thirds of an 18-year sentence for his role in the multi-million pound ring – has escaped being kicked out after arguing that his links to Kurdish separatists and previous crimes would leave him at risk of persecution in his homeland.

He has also been granted anonymity by the immigration court system and can be named only as ‘CD’. 

The case comes as figures show the number of foreign criminals subject to deportation orders but still living in Britain has soared to almost 10,000. Eight years ago, there were 3,943.

Home Secretary Priti Patel last month detailed plans for new legislation to make it easier for judges to expel foreign criminals. 

Her pledge drew criticism from human rights lawyers and it is unclear how the new laws will align with existing human rights legislation enshrined in UK law through the Human Rights Act 1998. 

Documents relating to the case of CD show he entered Britain illegally in 1995. He was refused asylum, but granted exceptional leave to remain for four years in 2000. 

Two years later, police in Holland contacted UK authorities to say the man was wanted by them in connection with heroin smuggling. 

When officers raided his flat in North London, they found a loaded pistol. 

He was jailed for four years but fought off a bid by the Government to deport him while still behind bars on the basis that his safety would be at risk if he was returned to Turkey.

Granted asylum, he was re-arrested in 2008 after a police investigation involving surveillance of his home found evidence that he was the head of a ‘massive’ drugs importation network. 

Sentencing him to 18 years, Judge Nicholas Ainley later described him as a ‘very major player in the heroin trade’. 

The father of two, who has a son who is a professional rugby player, was again made the subject of a deportation order, but once more used human rights laws and a probation report that concluded he was a reformed character to avoid removal.

But immigration judges decided he had been able to ‘deceive and conceal’ his true risk from probation officers. 

In their judgment, they wrote: ‘We do not accept that he rose from the bottom to the top of an international heroin smuggling ring within 18 months of his release from prison. 

We think he has wilfully attempted to minimise or conceal his previous involvement in that world.’

Last night, the Home Office was unable to say if the new legislation would alter CD’s case. 

Alp Mehmet, Chairman of the Migration Watch UK think-tank, said: ‘The Government needs to be able to remove offenders who pose a threat to the public.’

Lawyers for CD did not respond to a request for comment.