Mahdi Hashi, imprisoned in New York today, is set to have his British citizenship revoked because of his Islamist extremist convictions and involvement. The former North Londoner said that his citizen was revoked to allow the US to try him for terrorism charges. He was arrested in Djibouti on the way to Yemen.
The British Nationality Act allows the UK home secretary to make an order to deprive the person of his or her citizenship if “deprivation is conducive to the public good”. However, Hashi is given the right to make an appeal for the deprivation.
Hashi was appealing his case, but because telephone lines were disrupted in Somalia and lacking a British embassy, his lawyer Helena Kennedy QC, couldn’t forward his appeal.
According to the home secertary’s lawyer Lisa Giovannetti QC, the deprivation of citizenship was served properly because Sashi is still a citizen of Somalia, thereby removing the accusation of leaving a person “stateless”.
Hashi was captured by the terrorist group al-Shabaab, a splinter group of the al-Qaeda, along with other captives. He was released by the terrorist group and was detained by the US authorities the following month. Hashi was also taken “hooded” into the United States.
The three judges of the case ruled that further submissions would be heard before a decision will be made.