Qatada associate will stay in UK, court signals In 1994, and in his absence, he was sentenced to death by an Egyptian Court for conspiracy to kill the country's prime minister. In 1999, again in his absence, he was sentenced to 15 years in Egypt for being the member of a terror organisation. However, the Supreme Court said the convictions cannot be relied up on because of concerns they were secured as a result of torture. Al-Sirri was also alleged to have conspired in the murder of General Ahmad Shah Masoud in Afghanistan on September 9, 2001 - just two days before the 9/11 atrocity. It is believed the general, a key non-Taliban figure in the country, was killed on the orders of Osama bin Laden. Al-Sirri was charged at the Old Bailey but the case was dropped after a senior judge there concluded the evidence pointed as much to his innocence as it did to his guilt. Al-Sirri went to the Supreme Court to argue he should not have been refused asylum under the Geneva Convention but lost his appeal. A separate appeal under the Geneva Convention from an Afghan, known only as DD, was also rejected. However, the court said: "For the time being at least, however, the Home Secretary accepts that these appellants cannot be returned to their home countries because they face a real risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment there."