THE north African men who were cleared of involvement in the so-called “ricin plot” are to claim asylum so that they can remain in Britain.

Lawyers say the men face being killed or tortured if they return home because they were branded as terrorists during the case, which ended at the Old Bailey last week.

One defendant, Maloud Feddag, against whom all charges were dropped at an early stage, has already been granted indefinite leave to remain in the country. He persuaded the Home Office that the unfounded allegations against him made it impossible for him to live safely in Algeria.

Lawyers say the case, approved by the Special Immigration Appeal Commission (SIAC), has set a precedent that the other 10 wrongly accused defendants could use. Even though some of the men are still facing lesser charges involving false passport and immigration offences they will be eligible for free housing and welfare benefits and, if their application is successful, permanent residency status.

One of them is Sidali Feddag, Maloud’s younger brother, who was cleared last week. Julian Hayes, his solicitor, said an application for asylum had already been lodged last month.

Hayes said he had been advised by an immigration specialist that the application would be successful even though an earlier application before his arrest in 2003 had been refused.

“My client applied for asylum as a minor and it was knocked back by the Home Office. He has just renewed a fresh claim on the basis that it will be impossible for him to go back to Algeria without being tortured,” said Hayes.

The fact that police had prosecuted Feddag in the ricin case gave his client sufficient grounds to claim asylum. “It was enough for SIAC to grant his brother asylum, so it will be enough for him. I understand that all the other acquitted defendants will be applying for asylum as well,” said Hayes.

Senior Scotland Yard officers are putting on a brave face even though several privately admitted that the outcome of the case was “disappointing”.

Despite making 100 arrests in one of the biggest operations mounted by SO13, the Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, only one man, Kamel Bourgass, was convicted of a terrorist offence.

The case cost the taxpayer £20m. Of the 12 original defendants, 11 were acquitted or cleared before trial. Bourgass was convicted at an earlier trial of the murder of Detective Constable Stephen Oake, a Special Branch officer, during a raid on a house in Manchester. Oake may now be awarded a George Cross for confronting Bourgass.

The case sparked public alarm after Scotland Yard announced that traces of ricin poison had been discovered at a flat in Wood Green, north London, in January 2003. They were acting on information that Bourgass, who lived in the flat, had stored home-made ricin in two pots of Nivea cream.

Bourgass went on the run. He killed Oake and stabbed three other police officers when he tried to resist arrest two weeks later. In the aftermath of the killing, Tony Blair claimed that the case showed that terrorists were intent on launching “weapons of mass destruction”.

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