JOHN REID blocked a move by The Times yesterday to compel him to release the names of two terrorism suspects on the run after breaking house arrest-style orders.

Mr Justice Collins criticised the Home Secretary for failing to respond to the media’s initial application and ordered him to pay the costs of the court application. He added: “These proceedings were only rendered necessary by his failure to respond to their initial application.”

The Home Office had failed “to give sensible information” to the media at an early stage.

The Home Secretary had originally kept secret the escapes of both men, an Iraqi asylum-seeker and a British-born Muslim.

Yesterday Mr Justice Collins accepted the Home Office argument that anonymity was necessary because of police concern about the effect on ongoing anti-terrorism operations if the men’s names were released. He said that the issue of anonymity should be kept under review in case circumstances changed.

The media organisations who attempted to have the names ban lifted included The Times, other national newspapers and the BBC.

It is feared that one of the fugitives, the Iraqi asylum-seeker, has left the country, even though the Home Office has his passport. He is alleged to have been part of a six-man recruitment team sent to Britain to enlist young volunteers to join attacks on British and US troops serving in Iraq.

The suspect, who can be identified only as LL, has been on the run since August, when he was under a control order being monitored by Group 4 Securicor. Police are still trying to discover how he managed to abscond before the High Court could announce that he and five other Iraqis had won their appeals against their 18-hour curfews.

By the time police arrived at the suspect’s home in the Manchester area to serve a new control order, an hour before the court ruling was made public, LL had already vanished.

The second missing man, “AD”, a 25-year-old British-born Muslim from Hounslow, West London, was questioned by MI6 agents while he was in jail in Pakistan over his alleged terrorist links.

Senior politicians from all parties have criticised the Home Office for not revealing the two mens’ disappearance immediately.

Patrick Mercer, the Tory Homeland Security spokesman, said: “We should publish their identities and photographs so we can get the public to help find them.”

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