EU ruling may rewrite terror laws

A final ruling is due before summer in a case brought by three women whose husbands appear on a list of people said to have links with al Qaida, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.

People on the list, drawn up by a UN sanctions committee, have their funds and other assets frozen, in a bid to cut off terrorist funding.

But the wives of three suspects on the list, all living in the UK, went to court to challenge the Treasury's decision to impose tough restrictions on access to social security payments worth several hundred pounds a week, including income support, child benefit and housing assistance.

Their legal challenge was thrown out by the High Court, but an appeal to the House of Lords has been sent to the European Court of Justice for an interpretation of the rules.

Now the court's Advocate-General has delivered an "opinion" saying the Treasury is wrong to apply the sanctions regime to "the provision by the state of social security and social assistance benefits".

The "opinion" is not legally binding on the full court, but the Advocate-General's view is followed in about 80 per cent of cases in the European Court of Justice.