UK court rejects gov't request to revoke Salah's bail

Leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel is now set to remain in UK until his deportation hearing, likely in September.

By JONNY PAUL , JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Sheikh Raed Salah 311 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Sheikh Raed Salah 311
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
LONDON – The Court of Appeal of England and Wales refused on Wednesday the British Home Secretary’s authorization to appeal the release of Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
The second most senior court in the English legal system threw out an attempt by the Home Office to revoke Salah’s bail.
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On July 15, the High Court in London granted Salah bail, on a surety of $49,000, while he awaits a deportation hearing. A successful appeal by the Home Office would have placed the former Umm el- Fahm mayor back in prison. He now is set to remain in the country until his deportation hearing, which is likely to be sometime in September.
Salah was arrested by British authorities last month after he managed to enter the country, despite a banning order in place, to take part in a number of political events organized by an anti-Israel campaign group and a far-left MP.
Home Office Minister Theresa May was ready to deport Salah from the UK saying that his presence is “not conducive to the public good.”
“The Home Office had excluded him for his anti- Semitic views yet he was able to enter the country unchallenged,” May said earlier this month.
Conservative MP Mike Freer said the UK Border Agency made “a very serious error in letting this man walk through passport control” given his “history of virulent anti-Semitism.”
Lawyers working for Salah are evoking the Human Rights Act – Article 10 - to show that deporting him is a breach of his right to freedom of expression. He is currently living in a five-bedroom house in north London, paid for by British tax payers.
“It is a disgrace, this is a man banned by the UK, he’s been deemed as ‘undesirable,’ the British people don’t want this man in the country,” said Douglas Murray, associate director of the London based think tank the Henry Jackson Society. “He somehow managed to slip into the UK, defying a Home Office order, and has been arrested by the British police. He is costing the British tax payer a sizable amount of money.” Murray called the court’s decision an outrage.
“We trust that following today’s decision, the Home Secretary will accept that her approach to Sheikh Salah’s case has been misconceived and counter-productive,” said Salah’s lawyer Tayab Ali, from the London law firm ITN Solicitors.


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