A former bodyguard of mass killer Osama bin Laden is being supported to live free in Germany at a cost to taxpayers of over £1,000 per month.

Although classified as dangerous and forced to report to police every day, authorities claim Sami A. cannot be sent back to his Tunisian homeland because the risk of torture would be too high.

He has already had his asylum application rejected by Germany and handed a deportation order.

Authorities claim Sami A. (pictured) cannot be sent back to his Tunisian homeland because the risk of torture would be too high

But the 42-year-old, who traveled to Afghanistan in the late 1990s to become a bodyguard for the architect of the 9/11 attacks, continues to stay in Germany after a court ruled he could face torture if deported.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia admitted it pays 1167,84 euros a month to him, his wife and their four children aged between four and 11.

The admission in the regional parliament came after a question was posed by the the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

News of the financial support he receives caused an instant storm.

Eckhardt Rehberg of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling CDU, Who is the party's budget chief, said: 'The German asylum law is being shamelessly exploited here.

'We must finance a terrorist with tax money because we must not deport him? I have no understanding of these court rulings.'

Aami A. traveled to Afghanistan in the late 1990s to become Osama bin Laden's (pictured) bodyguard

Since no other country has shown willingness to take in the Tunisian, it now seems he will remain in Germany indefinitely - even though security services still consider Sami A. to be a dangerous and central member of the Islamist scene in the country and have had him under observation since at least 2006.

'That such a man is allowed to stay in Germany is a punch in the face to all anti-terror investigators,' a security source told local media.

'He protected the most wanted man in the world and we treat him with kid gloves.'

The ban on deportations to Tunisia was lifted two years ago.

But officials still feel that such a close ally of bin Laden would run the risk of imprisonment, torture and death.

Sami A. came to Germany as a student in 1997 before opting to become a jihadist and traveling to Afghanistan where he trained in a terror camp before becoming a bodyguard to bin Laden.

The Supreme Court blocked his deportation despite judges in Münster branding him 'an acute and considerable danger for public security'.