"The home secretary, Charles Clarke, faced fresh pressure over his handling of foreign prisoners when the police revealed the prime suspect in the killing of Bradford policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky was a Somali man who had not been deported from Britain to protect his human rights.
Mustaf Jammal is a prime suspect in the murder last November of the Bradford policewoman gunned down in a travel agent's.
Mr Clarke will make a statement today to the House of Commons on his department's tracking of 1,023 foreign criminals who were not deported after serving their sentences - the second time in eight days that he has been forced to explain the crisis to MPs.
Jammal, 25, had previously been convicted for robbery and drug offences, and had been considered for deportation last spring after being released from prison for another offence. Immigration officials looked at the case but because he was from war-torn Somalia decided no action could be taken. The government was originally under attack after it emerged the Prison Service and the immigration department had breached their own orders and allowed the release of more than 1,000 foreign prisoners without any consideration at all for deportation. Jammal was not one of the 1,023 but is one of nearly 2,000 foreign prisoners since 1999 who had been allowed to stay in the country after Home Office consideration."
As Jammal was properly considered for deportation, why does this have any bearing on the main case that Mr Clarke has to answer, that is the release of 1,023 foreign prisoners without consideration of deportation? The conflation of the different issues (eg by references to today's Ministerial statement) merely serves to muddy the waters. It is a tabloid trick intended to add to the emotional intensity of the original crisis. It neither helps those seeking to defend the Government's actions nor those seeking to have the problems resolved.
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