Fury as Abu Hamza keeps British passport
HATE preacher Abu Hamza was given the right to call himself British yesterday after a court stopped the Government taking his passport away.
Judges refused to strip the hook-handed cleric of citizenship despite his record of spouting poison against Britain.
They ruled that the 52-year-old Muslim firebrand has been disowned by his native Egypt and has nowhere else to go.
The panel decided that to withdraw his British nationality would be illegal because it would render him “stateless”.
Hamza’s latest victory – as he serves a seven-year jail term for hate crimes and incitement to murder – sparked fury last night.
David Cameron said he was “disappointed” by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission decision.
Tory MP Greg Hands said: “This is a man who effectively declared war on Britain and is now scrambling to retain his British passport.” Fellow Tory Patrick Mercer said: “Abu Hamza is an enemy of the state and has been clearly labelled such by successive Governments.
“This is a blunder on a monumental scale which will result in the spending of further taxpayers’ money and danger to the British people.”
Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “This is outrageous. In no way is Abu Hamza a British citizen. He is an enemy of Britain who has preached hatred against Britain.”
Yesterday’s judgment is Hamza’s latest victory in a long series of legal battles funded by the taxpayer through legal aid.
He is believed to have cost taxpayers more than £3million in legal bills, prison costs and state benefits for himself, his wife and eight children.
He is also fighting extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for alleged terror offences. That case was delayed by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg while further evidence was produced about how he would be treated there.
The decision to strip him of citizenship was made in 2003 by then Home Secretary David Blunkett, but delayed by the criminal proceedings against him.
He was jailed for seven years in February 2006 for inciting murder and race hate and is currently in Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London.
Although born in Egypt, he was granted British citizenship after marrying an English woman when he moved here on a student visa in the 1970s.
During the immigration hearing last month, Hamza claimed that he had been stripped of his Egyptian citizenship.
The Home Office argued that there were no documents to prove that this had happened.
Although Hamza was once denied an Egyptian passport because he had not done military service, he was later granted citizenship of his home state. The cleric’s legal team, led by Edward Fitzgerald QC and briefed by human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce’s firm, called an Egyptian law expert as a witness.
Sabah Al-Mukhtar told the hearing that if an Egyptian obtained a foreign nationality without permission, they would be stripped of their Egyptian citizenship. But he admitted some of his evidence was based on speculation.
James Strachan, for the Home Office, said Mr Al-Mukhtar’s interpretation was a “fundamental disagreement” with its own expert’s view.
Delivering the 12-page commission ruling yesterday, Mr Justice Mitting said there were “very good grounds for believing” that the Egyptians had “effectively stripped the appellant” of his citizenship.
The Home Office last night said it was considering its response to the decision.
