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Terror suspect deported from UK | Terror suspect deported from UK |
(about 7 hours later) | |
An alleged international terrorist has been deported from the UK to France, the Home Office has said. | |
The 33-year-old man, with dual French-Algerian nationality, has been identified only by the initials MK. He was deported from Britain on Thursday. | The 33-year-old man, with dual French-Algerian nationality, has been identified only by the initials MK. He was deported from Britain on Thursday. |
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission had heard that he was linked to Al Qaeda through an Algerian group. | |
His British lawyer has questioned the removal amid reports that the man faces no charges in France. | |
A Home Office spokesperson said MK was the third person to be deported from the UK on national security grounds. | A Home Office spokesperson said MK was the third person to be deported from the UK on national security grounds. |
"Our priority is to protect public safety and national security. Where a foreign national living in the UK poses a threat to this country, we will seek to remove them," added the spokesman. | |
Alleged terrorist links | |
MK was originally detained in September 2004. Born in Algeria in 1973, he had moved to France where he was naturalised before arriving in the UK in 1992. | |
Although the Home Office told him in 1995 that he may not be a legal resident, he remained in the UK. | |
The man was alleged to have been a member of Abu Doha, an Algerian terrorist organisation. He had alleged taken part in military training in Afghanistan and terrorist related activity both there and in Pakistan. | |
The security services also alleged that he had helped to supply financial support to extremists involved in a plot in the UK, another to bomb Los Angeles airport and a third to target a Christmas market in Strasbourg. He maintained a close relationship with a dozen or more Islamist extremists, according to the Home Office. MK had denied being a terrorist. | |
MK lost an appeal against his detention before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), but was later granted bail after the court heard he had a British "common-law wife" who has a daughter. | |
Future unclear | |
But according to reports from the Associated Press news agency, quoting judicial sources, the deported man was not charged with any terrorism-related offences on arrival in Paris and is unknown to investigators. It remains unclear whether MK has been allowed to go free. | |
Nicola Rogers, the deported man's barrister at the Siac hearings, said there were unanswered questions about how the case had been handled. | |
"This really calls into question how confident the Home Office actually was with its evidence that they relied upon in closed session," said Ms Rogers. | |
"If they really believed him to be an international terrorism suspect then surely there would have been an agreement with the French authorities over his future handling." | |
A spokesman for the Home Office declined to comment on arrangements regarding MK's handover to French authorities or his future monitoring - but emphasised that security services always closely co-operated over deportations. | |
MK had been deported because of the risk he had posed to the UK, said the spokesman. He remained on a terrorism watch list and would be identified if he attempted to re-enter the UK. | |
"We do not talk about what happens to someone when they have been deported. It's now for the French authorities to decide what happens to him." |