Terror suspect 'cannot be deported'

Mr Justice Mitting, chairman of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission panel in central London, said of Algerian Mouloud Sihali: "The Commission has found he is not a risk to national security."

But the judge added: "His immigration status is still uncertain."

Mr Sihali, 30, was acquitted of charges in the ricin plot trial in April 2005 which alleged that a terror cell planned to distribute the toxin on car door handles in Holloway Road, north London.

Bail conditions on Mr Sihali, who has been tagged and given an exclusion zone, were relaxed. He was bailed with the restriction that he live at a certain address and report once a week to immigration officials.

The Home Secretary has 10 days to appeal and press on with his bid to send him back to Algeria.

The cases of three other Algerians - identified only as U, W and Z - were dismissed but they are set for a Court of Appeal hearing. U is set to launch his Court of Appeal hearing next month.

In its ruling on Mr Sihali, the panel said there was an "absence of any evidence or intelligence that he has ever been a principled Islamic extremist". They note that security services had not argued that he was.

But the panel also point out that after he was released from Belmarsh maximum security prison, after being cleared of the ricin plot, it was noted he "soon lost interest in religious observance" and did not appear to be a practising religious person.

The Home Secretary's case against Mr Sihali had been that there is a real risk that he could provide assistance to terrorists because he had "provided active if undiscriminating" assistance to them in the past. But the panel found he had never engaged in anything beyond petty dishonesty and has "no significant skill which would be of use to terrorists in the future".