Rochdale grooming gang: Wrong to deport members, tribunal told

Adil Khan (left) and Qari Rauf (right) were jailed in 2012 for a catalogue of serious child sex offences

A ringleader of a grooming gang has avoided being deported so it would therefore be wrong to deport two other gang members, a tribunal has heard.

Abdul Aziz, 51, Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Rauf, 52, were among nine gang members jailed in 2012 for a catalogue of child sex offences in Rochdale.

A tribunal heard Aziz, known as "the Master", has been told he will not be deported by the Home Office.

Khan and Rauf claim deportation would interfere with their human rights.

The tribunal heard how all three were liable to be deprived of UK citizenship and deported as they also held Pakistani nationality, and then-home secretary Theresa May ruled it would be "conducive to the public good".

Since being released from jail, the men have fought a long legal battle against deportation, mounting multiple legal challenges and appeals, spanning several years.

It emerged at the immigration tribunal hearing in London, Aziz had already been told he will not be stripped of his UK citizenship and deported.

Aziz had renounced his Pakistani citizenship on 13 July, 2018, six years after he was jailed, but just days before the Court of Appeal ruled he could be deprived of his UK citizenship.

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Rauf and Khan only renounced their Pakistani citizenship in September of the same year after the Court of Appeal ruling.

Lawyers for Rauf said the law demands consistency of treatment and although Rauf could regain his Pakistani nationality simply by signing a form, he refuses to do so because he does not want to be deported.

Khan told the hearing: "I have a question for the Home Secretary, whether Mr Aziz was an angel and I am a devil?"

Aziz was jailed for nine years in 2012, for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child by penetrative sex and trafficking for sexual exploitation a 15-year-old girl.

He took his victim to flats in Rochdale where she was plied with vodka and drugs and coerced into sex with gangs of men in return for payment to him.

Rauf, a father-of-five, trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferry her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.

Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant, but denied he was the father, then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her to others using violence when she complained.

The hearing was adjourned with a decision on deportation expected later this year.

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