Expelled UK Muslim Feared under Torture
A former Muslim British national stripped of his citizenship for refusing to spy for the UK spy agency MI5 is now in detention facilities in Africa, which are notorious for torture.
Family of Mahdi Hashi, who also holds a Somali nationality, say they received a letter from the Home Office last summer telling them that their son will no more be a British national claiming he is linked to “extremist” groups.
The letter did not offer proofs for the allegation only saying the decision has been made based on secret evidence that “should not be made public in the interest of national security.”
According to CagePrisoners human rights group, the 23-year-old, who was born in Somalia and immigrated to Britain with his family when he was only five, was persecuted by MI5 repeatedly before being expelled.
He told the Independent in 2009 that when he wanted to travel to his home country at the age of 19 to visit his sick grandmother, the spy agency had warned him not to go to Somalia unless he accepts the consequences.
“He [an MI5 agent] 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,” he said.
He did take the flight but he was detained at Djibouti airport and sent back to London where he was detained again and labeled a terror suspect.
The message later conveyed to him, through a hail of phone calls, was clear: either he worked for the security service and spied on his fellow Muslims to get his terror suspect label removed or he would face more harassment and finally withdrawal of British citizenship.
He chose not to spy for MI5 and was deported to Somalia.
Hashi’s family said a man who had been released from a prison in Djibouti told them that he had seen their son in Naggar prison before he was taken away by American forces.
“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,” Hashi’s father told Russia Today.
Hashi’s location, or his fate, is not clear though his family fear he has been taken to the notorious US detention center at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, known as an extraordinary rendition base for illegal torture and interrogation of suspects or their transfer to third-party states.
There have been at least 13 cases of a British Muslim being stripped of their nationality and facing similar fates to Hashi since 2006.
Source: Press TV
The letter did not offer proofs for the allegation only saying the decision has been made based on secret evidence that “should not be made public in the interest of national security.”
According to CagePrisoners human rights group, the 23-year-old, who was born in Somalia and immigrated to Britain with his family when he was only five, was persecuted by MI5 repeatedly before being expelled.
He told the Independent in 2009 that when he wanted to travel to his home country at the age of 19 to visit his sick grandmother, the spy agency had warned him not to go to Somalia unless he accepts the consequences.
“He [an MI5 agent] 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,” he said.
He did take the flight but he was detained at Djibouti airport and sent back to London where he was detained again and labeled a terror suspect.
The message later conveyed to him, through a hail of phone calls, was clear: either he worked for the security service and spied on his fellow Muslims to get his terror suspect label removed or he would face more harassment and finally withdrawal of British citizenship.
He chose not to spy for MI5 and was deported to Somalia.
Hashi’s family said a man who had been released from a prison in Djibouti told them that he had seen their son in Naggar prison before he was taken away by American forces.
“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,” Hashi’s father told Russia Today.
Hashi’s location, or his fate, is not clear though his family fear he has been taken to the notorious US detention center at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, known as an extraordinary rendition base for illegal torture and interrogation of suspects or their transfer to third-party states.
There have been at least 13 cases of a British Muslim being stripped of their nationality and facing similar fates to Hashi since 2006.
Source: Press TV
