A convict convicted of double murder, who once held a prison officer hostage, has succeeded in a legal battle for compensation and legal fees amounting to £240,000 funded by taxpayers. Fuad Awale, imprisoned for life for the fatal shooting of two teenagers in 2013, along with an additional sentence for threatening a prison officer, claimed to have suffered from severe depression while confined in a special unit for dangerous inmates at HMP Woodhill in Buckinghamshire.
The High Court ruled that his confinement breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), resulting in an award of £7,500 in compensation and £234,000 in legal costs. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick criticized the decision, emphasizing that taxpayers should not be financing compensation and legal expenses for a violent criminal like Awale.
Awale’s compensation details were disclosed in a letter from Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy to Mr. Jenrick. Awale, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013 at the age of 25 for the murder of two individuals over a drug-related dispute, received an additional six-year sentence for the prison officer hostage incident.
Following assessments of Awale’s extremist beliefs, he was closely monitored and isolated in HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes, with limited interaction with other inmates. His legal representatives argued that the decisions to restrict his access were unclear and violated his rights to challenge his segregated conditions as required by law.
Mr. Lammy assured that policy adjustments are being considered to ensure the legal framework for inmate separation remains effective and trustworthy. The compensation sum of £7,500, deemed a modest portion of the settlement, was contested by the Ministry of Justice, a standard procedure for all litigations involving prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offenses.