UK-ECHR: European Court: Depriving suspected terrorist of British citizenship was lawful
09 March 2017
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UK-ECHR
European Court: Depriving suspected terrorist of British citizenship was lawful
9.3.17
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The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the British government acted lawfully in depriving a dual Sudanese-British national of his citizenship due to suspected involvement in activities related to terrorism in Somalia.
European Court of Human Rights: Depriving a suspected terrorist of his citizenship was lawful under the Convention (press release, pdf):
"In its decision in the case of K2 v. the United Kingdom (application no. 42387/13) the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously declared the application inadmissible. The decision is final.
K2 was suspected of taking part in terrorism-related activities in Somalia. In 2010, the Secretary of State for the Home Office deprived him of his UK citizenship and barred him from re-entering the country.
K2 claimed that these decisions had violated his right to respect for private and family life under Article 8, and had been discriminatory.
The Court ruled that the complaints were inadmissible, as they were clearly without merit. Although an arbitrary denial or revocation of citizenship might in some circumstances raise an issue under Article 8, because of its impact on the private life of an individual, the Court found that no such issue arose in the present case. The Home Secretary at the time had acted swiftly and diligently, and in accordance with the law. K2 had had a statutory right to appeal and access to judicial review but the UK courts had rejected his claims after giving them a comprehensive and thorough examination. Though some of the case against K2 had been kept secret for security reasons, his special advocate had had access to this information, and the nature of the case was broadly known to K2."
And see: Stripping terror suspects of British citizenship is lawful, European judges rule(The Guardian, link):
"European human rights judges have ruled that Theresa May’s policy of stripping British terror suspects of their citizenship while abroad to bar them from returning to Britain is lawful.
Judges at the European court of human rights (ECHR) unanimously threw out a claim by a Sudan-born terror suspect who took UK citizenship in 2000 that depriving him of his British passport violated his right to a private and family life.
The ECHR ruling also dismissed the man’s claim that he couldn’t properly appeal the decision from abroad because he feared that his communications with his lawyers would be intercepted by the Sudanese counter-terrorism authorities.
The Strasbourg judges said the home secretary at the time, Theresa May, had “acted swiftly and diligently, and in accordance with the law”."
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