Ali Osman Gok,The man, who was a senior member of an international drugs gang, arranged to smuggle £30 million of heroin into Britain

Ali Osman Gok,The man, who was a senior member of an international drugs gang, arranged to smuggle £30 million of heroin into Britain hidden inside the fuel tank of an articulated lorry.
The Home Office spent two years trying to deport Ali Osman Gok after he was freed from prison in 2008.But his lawyers successfully overturned their efforts by mounting a lengthy series of appeals, focusing on a little-known, 30-year-old treaty between the EU and Turkey which mainly deals with import duty on fruit and vegetables.
Gok, 40, who lives in north London with his wife and two daughters, is now free to remain in Britain indefinitely.
Immigration campaigners have described the decision is "ridiculous" and criticised lawyers for using "obscure" rules to prevent deportation of serious criminals.
The treaty which enabled Gok win his case governs tariffs on goods between Turkey and Europe, and includes a detailed list of aubergines, watermelons, marrows and other foodstuffs covered by the agreement.
Known as "Decision 1/80 of the Association Council of September 19, 1980", it also includes a number of "social provisions" which were the key element of the case put forward by Gok's solicitor.
It meas that Turkish nationals can only be denied the right to live and work in European Community states if they pose a "specific risk of new and serious prejudice to the requirements of public policy".
The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) made its decision despite hearing that Gok had been a key member of one of the biggest heroin smuggling plots the UK has ever seen.
The plot saw 345lbs (157 kilograms) of heroin smuggled through a British port hidden in a secret compartment in a Slovenian-registered truck.
Police used a helicopter and plain clothes officers to observe the lorry's progress through Folkestone and around the M25 to the Rookery Cafe on the Great North Road at Welham Green, Hertfordshire, where the driver transferred the drugs from the customised fuel tank to the cab.
Shortly afterwards police intercepted the lorry, and arrested the driver as well as Gok and his co-defendant Mahir Kaynar.
Gok's crime was described as "despicable" by the trial judge who sentenced him to 30 years' imprisonment, later reduced to 20 years by the Court of Appeal. He served a total of nine years and three months before being released in February 2008.
The AIT Judge, Peter Moulden, said: "It is clear that his offence, involving the importation of a very large quantity of heroin worth at street value in the region of £30 million, was an offence with the potential to do enormous damage to many people.
"There was no doubt that when he was convicted the appellant posed a serious and current threat to public policy and security and there was likely to be a propensity to re-offend.
"However, that was in 1997 and I must consider the position now."
He added: "Looking at all the evidence in the round I find that the appellant does not pose a genuine or sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society."
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: "This is getting increasingly ridiculous. If a major drugs smuggler can't be thrown out then who can be?
"Lawyers are finding one obscure means after another to prevent the deportation of serious criminals who we would be much better off without."
The drug smuggler launched his appeal against deportation based on Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a family life.
Gok argued that he had a 13-year-old daughter and an infant daughter born after his release from prison who would suffer if he was deported.
He also argued that he would be at risk of retribution from Turkish criminals who helped organise the plot.
Because the court accepted his argument on Decision 1/80, the AIT made no further ruling on the human rights arguments.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We were very disappointed with the court's ruling in this case and it was in the public's interest that we tried to remove this individual from the UK.
"Any foreign criminal serving more than 12 months in prison is automatically considered for deportation."
Earlier this year The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that an Iraqi immigrant who stabbed two doctors to death had been awarded the right to stay in Britain by the AIT because he would pose a danger to the public in his homeland.