BRITAIN's top court is to decide whether it was wrong to lock up a Scottish racist killer in solitary confinement.
The UK Supreme Court will next month hear an appeal from Imran Shahid who argues his human rights were breached when he was held in segregation for more than four and a half years.
Shahid - still widely known by his gangland nickname Baldy - is serving a 25-year life sentence for the racially motivated murder of 15-year-old Kriss Donald in 2006.
The 38-year-old is claiming £6,000 in compensation, saying his treatment was inhuman and degrading but his case could change the way Scottish jails deal with vulnerable prisoners like paedophiles and serial killers at risk from the general population.
Insiders admit Shahid's detention in solitary - of four years and eight months - was unusually long.
Scottish ministers have successfully argued that he was locked up separately for his own protection. Successive Scottish judges have dismissed Shahid's case, first launched in 2011, as it progressed through the Court of Session.
His final Scottish appeal was rejected a year ago.
Lord Drummond Young, who heard the appeal with Lord Menzies and Lord Wheatley, then 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 at various jails where he was held.
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 killed, 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".
Prison governors have to periodically renew any authorisation for a prisoner to be held in segregation in Scotland.
However, Shahid and his lawyers argue that the time - from his remand custody until 2010 - was unlawfully long and failed to adhere to 2006 rules on solitary.
After Shahid was allowed to join the general prison population he was battered and left for dead in a prison gym, in Kilmarnock.
Another murderer, William Crawford, then 25, admitted hitting Shahid on the head with a 15 kilo weight as the racist was working out on a rowing machine. Other prisoners then started beating Shahid with metal poles.
Shahid suffered a fractured jaw and cheekbone, shattered teeth and cuts, bruises and swelling to his face and head.
The former gang leader is not the first Scottish prisoner to sue over segregation.
His solicitors, Taylor and Kelly, have previously championed successful bids from others, including murderers Andrew Somerville and Ricardo Blanco, who won out-of-court settlements in 2009.
However, the human rights biggest case on solitary confinement was from France, where terrorist Ilich RamÃrez Sánchez - better known as "Carlos the Jackal" after a spate of murders - spent eight years on his own in seven-square-meter cell.
Despite having little or no contact with anyone, the Marxist hitman failed to get his case through the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Scottish judges, citing the landmark case, said they felt Shahid's conditions were far better than the Jackal's.
The UK Supreme Court has replaced the House of Lords as the court of final instance for Scottish human rights cases.
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