Home Secretary 'ends control order on terror suspect'

A terror suspect under a control order for three years has been freed by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, it was reported today.

The move came as the man - known only as AF - prepared for a legal hearing at which Mr Johnson might have been forced to disclose the secret intelligence on which the state relied to justify his virtual house arrest.

The man, who has dual Libyan and British nationality, was one of three terror suspects who won a landmark Law Lords ruling in July that their control orders were illegal because they had not been given sufficient details of the case against them.

The ruling opened the door for 20 other men under control orders to seek to know the case against them.

Mr Johnson said at the time that the Home Office would contest each case vigorously. But it is understood that there were concerns that intelligence sources may be jeopardised if ministers were forced to disclose the evidence on which the control orders were based.

The Times reported today that he wrote to AF's lawyers to say he was revoking his control order, without giving any reason for the decision.

Solicitor Carl Richmond told the paper that AF, who had been confined in his home for up to 16 hours a day as a result of the order, "feels numb about it all, almost disbelief".

Mr Richmond said that he would now seek to have the order formally quashed in the High Court at a hearing in October or November.

It is understood that AF was born in 1981 to a Libyan father and English mother in Derby and now lives in Manchester.

The Home Office declined to confirm whether the control order had been revoked or to make any comment on the case.