UK terror suspect Mahdi Hashi fights citizenship ruling

Mahdi Hashi was given a British passport when his family came to Britain from Somali

A British terror suspect is challenging a government decision to strip him of his UK citizenship as a "flagrant deprivation" of his human rights.

Mahdi Hashi, 23, was given a British passport after he left Somalia with his family to settle in London in 1995.

In June last year, while Mr Hashi was back in Somalia, he was told his citizenship was to be revoked due to alleged Islamist extremist involvement.

He was then detained by US authorities and is now in prison in New York.

In June last year, when he was in Somalia, the Home Secretary served notice that she intended to make an order removing his citizenship because he "had been involved in Islamist extremism".

Mr Hashi, formerly of Camden in north London, claims his citizenship was revoked to pave the way for his extraordinary rendition to the US, where he is currently awaiting trial on terrorism charges.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said he was detained along with two other suspects on their way to Yemen. Today the court was told he was arrested in Djibouti.

'Secret intelligence'

A court heard earlier that MI5 had assessed that Mr Hashi "presented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom due to his extremist activities".

Under the British Nationality Act the home secretary can make an order depriving a person of citizenship status if they are "satisfied that deprivation is conducive to the public good".

No court approval is required but there is a right to appeal.

Helena Kennedy QC for Mr Hashi, said her client was unable to appeal the decision within the one-month time limit because telephone lines were disrupted in Somalia, which she described as "a war zone" where there is currently no British embassy.

But Lisa Giovannetti QC, representing the home secretary, told the court the "deprivation [of citizenship] notice was properly served" and did not leave Mr Hashi stateless since he is "a citizen of Somalia."

Baroness Kennedy told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) that depriving someone of their citizenship is "a highly significant matter and should take place in the rarest of circumstances".

She said in this case it had happened "on the basis of secret intelligence" and, because her client was not a dual national, had "rendered him stateless".

She added: "You don't put people in black holes where no law operates... that is what Guantanamo [Bay US detention camp] was about and what internationally caused such outrage."

'Lengthy interrogation'

The court heard how for three months before the order was served Mr Hashi had been held in captivity by the Somalian terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has links to al-Qaeda.

Baroness Kennedy said her client 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".

The court heard 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.

Baroness Kennedy said: "After a lengthy period of interrogation he was taken, hooded, to the United States."

Lawyers for the home secretary deny there was any "causal connection" between the removal of Mr Hashi's citizenship and his detention and eventual removal to the United States.

Lisa Giovannetti QC said "there is no basis for this ground at all".

At the end of the hearing, SIAC's panel of three judges ruled they would hear further submissions before taking a final decision.