Bakri case highlights disarray on terror laws
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 10 August 2005
The Independent
<javascript:launchPopup('http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article30
4911.ece?service=imagePopUp&field=bodyCopy&pageNumber=1','imagePopUp',640,64
0,'yes','yes','no','no');> Bakri case highlights disarray on terror lawsJohn
Prscott has admitted he is powerless to stop radical cleric Sheikh Omar
Bakri Mohammed from re-entering Britain
Government plans to stop people actively encouraging terrorism were in
disarray after the Deputy Prime Minister admitted he was powerless to
prevent radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed from re-entering the country
whenever he chooses.
John Prescott, who is in charge of the Government while Tony Blair is on
holiday, said: "I don't think he's welcomed by many people in this country,
but at the moment he has a right to come in and out."
Mr Bakri, who praised the London suicide bombers as the "fabulous four" ,
fled on Saturday to Beirut. "If there is a crime in the UK and my name has
been mentioned I will be the first one to return to challenge all these
allegations. There is no treason. I am not a British subject and I never
committed any form of crime whatsoever," he said from Beirut. "I am going to
return back in four weeks unless the Government say we are not welcome,
because my family is in the UK."
The Home Office is planning to tighten immigration rules before the end of
the month to prevent Mr Bakri from returning.
A two-week consultation on expanding the circumstances in which foreign
nationals could be deported or excluded from the UK is due to end next week.
The consultation document set out a list of "unacceptable behaviours"
including preaching to justify or glorify terrorism or "fostering hatred" .
The new rules would not be subject to parliamentary approval and could be
enforced almost straight away.
If Mr Bakri arrived after then he could be excluded.
Mr Bakri, the so-called "Tottenham Ayatollah", sparked outrage last week by
saying he would not inform police if he knew Muslim extremists were planning
a bomb attack in Britain, claiming it would be "forbidden" by Islam.
The self-styled sheikh, who ran the radical al-Muhajiroun group from
Tottenham in north London until it was disbanded last year, is famous for
praising the 9/11 hijackers as the "magnificent 19".
Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, said that the judiciary must
support the Government in the fight against terrorism. Writing in The Daily
Telegraph, he urged Britain to respond to changes in the country because of
the threat of terrorist attacks. "We all have a duty to play our part in
dealing with the threat of terrorism and those who foment terrorism," he
wrote. "That includes the Government and Opposition. It should also include
the judiciary."
He added that one of his colleagues wrote to Jack Straw, when he was home
secretary, seven years ago asking for Mr Bakri to be deported.
Interviewed on BBC2's Newsnight, the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer was
invited to say that Mr Bakri was not welcome to return to Britain. Lord
Falconer said: "I don't want to talk about individual cases, because [there
could be] a legal process in relation to that.
"But the fundamental point, which I believe all the political parties agree
with, and the wider community, is that people from abroad who come here to
seek to foment terrorism should not be allowed to stay here."
Earlier Lord Falconerdismissed the idea that he and other radical clerics
could be charged with treason as "extraordinarily unlikely".
The Government is also facing increasing frustration over efforts to have
extradited from Italy Hamdi Issac, the Ethiopian also known as Hussain
Osman, who allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on a bus in Shepherd's Bush on
21 July. Prosecutors in Rome yesterday raised the possibility that he might
stand trial for murder in Italy, complicating British efforts.
They said that if a firm link could be made between Mr Issac and the July 7
London bombings, the suspect could be charged with involvement in the murder
of Benedetta Ciaccia, an Italian who died in one of the blasts. The
extradition hearing for Mr Issac is set for 17 August. Yesterday British and
Italian investigators jointly questioned him at Regina Coeli prison in Rome,
where he has been held since his arrest in Rome on 29 July.
Yesterday the civil rights organisation Liberty reacted angrily to the
possibility of introducing special anti-terror courts.
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