Hamza appealing Home Office citizenship decision

By LiseS

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 22:46

One of Finsbury Park's most notorious ex-residents, the former imam of the North London Mosque on St Thomas's Road Abu Hamza al-Masri, has launched an appeal to retain his British citizenship.

Hotbed of tranquility: the present-day North London Mosque

 

Egyptian-born Hamza was arrested in 2004 and jailed for incitement to murder and racial hatred. The former cleric has been indicted in the US for attempting to establish a terrorist training camp, and in November 2007 the British courts agreed his extradition to the US on completion of his seven-year sentence. Hamza is also challenging this extradition order through the European Court of Human Rights, claiming he would face inhumane conditions in a US Supermax prison.

Hamza's lawyer Amanda Weston told a preliminary hearing of the Home Office Special Immigration Appeals Commission that her client wished his UK citizenship case to be heard while he was still in the country and able to participate in proceedings.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson called Hamza "unfit" to keep his British passport. Mr Justice Mitting described the latest challenge as part of Hamza's "protracted guerilla warfare" and added, “No doubt this is one of many attempts to ensure that he stays in this country....it may or may not succeed on its own merits."

The Home Office have suggested their citizenship decision may be postponed until after the Strasbourg Human Rights ruling. A preliminary hearing date has been set for the beginning of February.

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