Reports from Gambia indicated that the Gamcotrap the executive
director, Dr. Isatou and the programme manager Aminata Bojang Sisaho have
finally been vindicated of the count of theft and fraud by criminal court
in The Gambia after two years seven months of trial. Are the Gambian
judges finally being the judges they are supposed to
be?
Kejau
> Man detained in
Somalia is stripped of UK citizenship for refusing to spy
> on Muslims By Jean Shaoul
> 10 November 2012
>
> The British government has stripped Mahdi Hashi, a 23-year-old
British
> national who also held Somali nationality, of his UK citizenship. It
is
> one
> of at least 13 such cases, mostly carried out by the
Conservative-Liberal
> Democrat coalition government, since 2006.
>
> Hashi’s family and friends insist that the government’s
action was in
> response to his refusal to become an informant for MI5,
Britain’s security
> service.
>
> Last summer, the Home Office claimed in a letter to his parents in
London
> that Hashi was a threat to UK national security due to his
“extremist”
> activities. The letter stated the decision was made in part on the
basis
> of
> secret evidence, which “should not be made public in the
interest of
> national security.”
>
> The young man, a care worker in the Kentish Town Community
Organisation,
> was born in Somalia and came to London with his family when he was
five.
> According to CagePrisoners, the human rights group headed by Moazzam
Begg,
> who was illegally held at Bagram airbase and Guantanamo Bay before
being
> released without charge in 2005, Hashi had been subject to
continual
> harassment by MI5.
>
> When he was 19, an MI5 officer at Gatwick airport warned him
against
> travelling to Somalia to visit his sick grandmother. Hashi told the
*
> Independent* in 2009, “He warned me not to get on the flight.
He said
> ‘Whatever happens to you outside the UK is not our
responsibility.’ I was
> absolutely shocked.”
>
> Either he worked for the security service or he would face detention
and
> harassment in the UK and overseas. He was detained at the airport
at
> Djibouti and later deported, allegedly at Britain’s request and
without
> explanation. On his return to London, he was detained again. He
was
> subsequently bombarded with phone calls urging him to spy on his
fellow
> Muslims if he wanted his terror suspect status lifted.
>
> Hashi refused to work for MI5. He complained to the police, the
> Investigatory Powers Tribunal—the body that oversees
MI5—and his MP,
> Labour’s Frank Dobson, to no avail. He also spoke to the media
in a bid to
> protect himself.
>
> Four of Hashi’s friends—all of Somali origin—also
explained their
> experiences when they were approached by MI5, who tried to coerce
them
> into
> working for it.
>
> Mohamed Nur, said, “One day they, the MI5 officers, came to my
house
> pretending to be postmen. When I let them in they accused me of being
an
> extremist. They said the only way to remove that taint from my name
is if
> you work for us, otherwise wherever you go we can’t protect
you... We
> perceived it as blackmail.”
>
> Abshir Ahmed said, “I felt bullied. I don’t want to work
with MI5 so they
> should just leave me alone.”
>
> When Adydarus Elmi, a 23-year-old cinema worker from north London,
arrived
> at Chicago’s O’Hare airport with his pregnant wife, they
were separated,
> questioned and deported back to Britain. Three days later he was to
go to
> Charing Cross police station about his travel documents. He said,
“I met a
> man and a woman. She said her name was Katherine and that she worked
for
> MI5. I didn’t know what MI5 was.”
>
> He was questioned for two-and-a-half hours in an attempt to get him
to
> work
> for MI5. He added, “She would regularly call my mother’s
home asking to
> speak to me, and she would constantly call my mobile.”
>
> The agent telephoned his home at 7 in the morning to congratulate him
on
> the birth of his baby girl. His wife was still seven months pregnant
and
> the couple had expressly told the hospital that they did not want to
know
> the sex of their child. He said that she threatened him saying,
“If you do
> not want anything to happen to your family you will
co-operate.”
>
> None of the men were ever charged with an offence and Hashi’s
family and
> friends reject the accusation he was an extremist. MI5’s
harassment
> prompted him to return to Somalia, where he looked after his sick
> grandmother. He later married and had a child there.
>
> At about the same time as the family received the letter from the
Home
> Office revoking his citizenship, Hashi was taken into custody. A man
who
> had been released from a prison in Djibouti told them that Hashi had
been
> held alongside him in Naggar prison, where he was mistreated before
being
> taken away by American forces. It is not known when, where or by whom
he
> was arrested.
>
> Mohamed Hashi, Hashi’s father, told *Russia Today*, “He
[the fellow
> prisoner] told us that he had been fingerprinted and that DNA has
been
> taken from him. The Americans, when they found out he was British
citizen,
> contacted the British consulate and the British consulate said
‘we have
> already removed British citizenship from him.’ And the
Americans took him
> somewhere, somewhere we don’t know.”
>
> His family fear that he may have been taken to Camp Lemonier, in
Djibouti,
> the notorious US anti-terrorist base that is part of the American
> extraordinary rendition programme whereby suspects are taken to
> third-party
> states to be illegally detained, interrogated and tortured.
>
> Since the invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia in 2006, the US has
expanded the
> base at Camp Lemonier and its operations in the Horn of Africa.
Young
> British Muslims who are from or linked to the Horn of Africa are
being
> profiled as likely to be involved as Islamic militants and subject
to
> targeting by the police and security forces.
>
> The British government has refused to give the family any assistance
in
> finding their son because he is no longer a citizen. Lawyers acting
on
> behalf of the family have asked the Home Office to explain where he
is
> being held and the charges against him. But the government refused to
say
> anything at all, stating, “It has been the policy of
successive
> governments
> neither to confirm nor deny speculation, allegations or assertion
in
> respect of intelligence matters.”
>
> By revoking Hashi’s citizenship, the government is issuing a
warning to
> young Muslims that failure to spy for MI5 will have serious
consequences.
> It is also seeking to absolve itself from any responsibility for
his
> safety, under conditions where he is certain to be subjected to
illegal
> and
> inhuman treatment at the US base.
>
> Home Secretary Theresa May can strip anyone with dual citizenship of
their
> British citizenship without a court order if she believes it to be
> “conducive to the public good,” a test historically
applied to non-Britons
> facing deportation. This little-known power was included in the
2006
> Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act rushed through in the wake of
the
> July 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people.
>
> Previously, British citizenship of a dual national could only be
revoked
> under the stricter test of being “seriously prejudicial to the
vital
> interests of the UK,” which usually meant spying.
>
> According to data obtained by the *Guardian* last year under the
Freedom
> of
> Information Act*, *five of the dual nationals deprived of their
> citizenship
> were British Pakistanis and two were of dual British and Sudanese
> nationality. The remaining six were Australian (David Hicks,
another
> Guantanamo detainee), Iraqi, Russian, Egyptian and Lebanese dual
> nationals.
>
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