A racist killer who was brutally attacked in prison has lost a human rights bid to win damages for being held in segregation in jail for his own safety.
Imran Shahid, 37, wanted a £6000 payout from the Scottish Government and a declaration that his treatment was unlawful after he spent almost five years away from the mainstream prison population.
Shahid was ordered to serve a minimum jail term of 25 years under a life sentence after he was convicted in 2006 of the racially motivated murder of 15-year-old Kriss Donald in Glasgow.
He raised a claim maintaining the decisions to keep him virtually continuously segregated between October 2005 and August 2010 violated his rights under articles of the European Convention on Human Rights protecting against torture and cruel punishment and the right to private life.
The bid was originally rejected in 2011 at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, but the case was appealed and three judges at the court yesterday refused the latest legal challenge.
Lord Drummond Young, who heard the appeal with Lord Menzies and Lord Wheatley, said: "The simple fact is that continuing threats to his personal safety were made. In those circumstances there was no alternative to segregation."
He said it was clear from evidence available to the prison authorities that "serious threats of harm" to Shahid had been made by other prisoners.
One report from 2006 said prisoners at Glenochil jail in Clackmannanshire had warned that if any of the schoolboy's murderers were housed there they would be murdered, and "there would be a queue of prisoners wanting to do it".
Lord Drummond Young said the appeal judges were "quite satisfied that adequate grounds existed for the continued segregation".
Shahid was jailed with others after Kriss Donald was abducted in Glasgow in March 2004 and subjected to a terrifying journey before being stabbed and set on fire.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article