Author: Our London Correspondent
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: May 21, 2003
Britain continues to play a significant
role as a support base for Al Qaeda, the UK government conceded on Monday.
But while it was once a haven for Islamic fundamentalists, it is now a
prime target, a court heard.
Unprecedented detail about the activities
of British-based Muslim fanatics was given during the first of a series
of appeals by suspected foreign terrorists against their detention without
trial under a new post-September 11 law.
The special immigration appeals
commission sitting at an underground bomb-proof court here heard how a
dozen terrorist attacks and planned attacks around the world could be traced
in part to Britain. They included the 1998 bombing of the US embassies
in Kenya and Mozambique, in which hundreds were killed and thousands injured,
and a thwarted plot to bomb the Christmas Market in Strasbourg three years
ago. At the centre of the network was a number of radical clerics, including
Abu Hamza, the hook-handed north London imam who faces the loss of his
British citizenship.
The principal figure was another
cleric with well-documented links to Islamic fundamentalism. But as he
is among the 15 who have been detained, the court ruled that he could not
be identified.
Known only as K, he and Abu Hamza
acted as a focal point for extreme Islamist groupings, networks and individuals
in the UK, Wyn Williams, QC, for the home office, said. Mr Williams said
that Abu Hamza, who as a British citizen could not be detained as the emergency
powers applied only to foreign nationals, had been a prominent supporter
of the GIA, a banned Algerian Islamist group with close links to Al Qaeda.
The government is arguing for the
continued detention of the foreign nationals, who are free to leave the
country but cannot be deported because the European Convention on Human
Rights forbids their removal to a place where they could be ill-treated,
the Daily Telegraph said.
Of the first three appellants, one
has returned to Morocco. Another, identified as 'B', was taken to the court
from prison but declined to appear. A North African identified as 'A' was
the only one to appear in person behind a glass screen, accompanied by
three guards. Mr Williams said many of the 15 detainees had provided support
for international terror groups, including money, forged papers, funds
and phones.
The court procedures are unusually
secretive to protect intelligence sources. An MI5 officer gave evidence
from behind a curtain.
