SARAJEVO, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Arab former fighter Imad al-Husin, also known as Abu Hamza, was detained and placed in an immigration centre in Sarajevo, his lawyer said Tuesday, accusing Bosnian authorities of breaking the law.

Abu Hamza's lawyer Osman Mulahalilovic said that the move was 'the initial legal step in the deportation process in violation of an order by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.'

'It is as if they are saying 'we do not care about law, we do not care about human rights',' Mulahalilovic said.

Mulahalilovic filed a criminal complaint with the Bosnian state prosecutors accusing the country's deputy security minister and head of the service for foreigners, Dragan Mektic, of overstepping his authority and of illegal arrest.

Abu Hamza's detention comes days after the Bosnian Constitutional Court ordered reconsideration of his complaint against the authorities for refusing to grant him permanent residence and asylum by virtue of his marriage to a Bosnian citizen.

Abu Hamza arrived in Bosnia during the country's 1992-95 war to fight with the Bosnian army unit El Mujahed, notorious for criminal activities. He was stripped of Bosnian citizenship last year.

His appeals for permanent residence and asylum have been rejected on the grounds that his presence in Bosnia is a threat to national security.

Abu Hamza was granted Bosnian citizenship 12 years ago and has since married a Bosnian woman with whom he has three children.

In January last year authorities gave him 15 days to leave Bosnia or face deportation. It was not known to which country Abu Hamza, of Syrian origin, would be deported.

However, he simultaneously appealed to Bosnia's constitutional court and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg accusing the authorities of breaching his human rights.

The European court subsequently ordered Bosnian authorities not to deport him for as long as a Bosnian court has not ruled in his case.