Wife of Al-Qaeda chief wins human rights case after claims UK airport police violated her privacy

The wife of one of Al-Qaeda's top recruiters in Europe had her human rights breached after she was stopped, questioned and detained without reasonable suspicion, European judges have ruled.

Sylvie Beghal, 49, a mother of three, was returning to Leicester after visiting her husband, Djamel Beghal, in a French prison when she was stopped at East Midlands airport in 2011. She claimed the action undertaken by police violated her right to privacy and family life.

Her claims were rejected by the UK High and Supreme Courts, but the European Court of Human Rights has now ruled in her favor. EU judges have told the government to cover her £21,531 legal bill. The UK Home Office has stated that it would be challenging the ruling.

The incident led to Sylvie Beghal being charged with failing to assist officers – an offense under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Her husband Djamel, originally from Algeria, settled in France in 1987. The couple married in 1990 before moving to Leicester, England, seven years later.

He made regular trips to London and was allegedly radicalised at the Finsbury Park Mosque under the influence of now-convicted terrorists Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada.

He is suspected of travelling to Afghanistan to receive orders from Osama Bin Laden to carry out terrorist attacks on American interests in France.

Beghal was banned from the UK in 2009 after being jailed in France for plotting to blow up the US embassy in Paris.

While in prison, he is said to have radicalised the infamous Charlie Hebdo killer, Cherif Kouachi, one of two brothers who killed 12 during a gun attack on the magazine's Paris offices in January 2015.

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