Left: Mahdi Hashi; right: Helena Kennedy
Friday, August 02, 2013
BARRISTER Baroness Helena Kennedy told a court that a former
Haverstock schoolboy was “exposed to illegality and an abuse of human
rights” by the government during a legal bid to restore his British
citizenship.
The Labour peer and QC represented Mahdi Hashi, who lived for 10
years in Gilbey’s Yard, Chalk Farm, in the Special Immigration Appeals
Tribunal court, Holborn, on Friday.
Mr Hashi, 23, was stripped of his passport by Home Secretary Theresa
May in June last year, weeks before he was arrested by CIA agents in
east Africa and taken to New York where he is charged with serious
terrorism offences.
Since his arrest, the government has refused to comment or intervene
in any way on his behalf, arguing he is no longer its responsibility.
Baroness Kennedy is challenging the “withdrawal of citizenship”
arguing he was not given a chance to appeal against the decision that
has left her client “stateless”.
Speaking to the New Journal after the hearing, Baroness
Kennedy said: “No attempt was made to inform him in Somalia or to seek
information from his parents as to how to contact him. We have no
Embassy in Somalia because things are so rough.
“He went to Djibouti where he was picked up by the secret police and held without any court process or access to advice.
"He was subjected to lengthy interrogation by CIA operatives then
hooded and flown to the USA – there was no due process, no application
for extradition, no suggestion he should be tried by his own country,
the UK.
"The secretary of state exposed him to illegality and an egregious abuse of his human rights.”
Baroness Kennedy said she told the court how for three months before
the order was served Mr Hashi had been held in captivity by the
Somalian terrorist group al-Shabaab.
Mr Hashi was “suspected of being an informant on behalf of the
British state because there had been some assassinations of some of
their members by drones”.
She said that some of those detained with him were executed, but Mr
Hashi was released only to be captured and detained by the US
authorities the following month.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Mr Hashi’s sister Fatuma said the family had
struggled to get access to him in the US. She said he had been put on
“special administrative measures”.
She said: “We got a call from the FBI saying Mahdi would be able to
speak to us but that no one else but his father could speak to him and
the call could not be on speaker phone.
"He knew it was Ramadan and he wished us well and said he had been
fasting. His grandmother in Somalia has passed away and last week was
the first time he heard about that.”
Mr Hashi went to Primrose Hill and Rhyl primary schools, before
going to Haverstock. He had gone public in 2009 with complaints that he,
along with other friends at the Kentish Town Community Centre, had been
harassed by MI5 after he refused to act as informer on Camden Muslims.
In a letter to his family announcing the removal of his citizenship
in June last year, Ms May said: “The reason for this decision is that
the Security Service assess that you have been involved in Islamist
extremism and present a risk to the national security of the United
Kingdom due to your extremist activities.”
The Home Office has repeatedly refused to comment on the case.