Good News!

[Aseerun]

By Andy Worthington




Earlier today, I published two articles about the suffering of control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh and his family — “Seven years of madness: the harrowing tale of Mahmoud Abu Rideh and Britain’s anti-terror laws,” and “Would you be able to cope?: Letters by the children of control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh” — as the Palestinian-born British resident, who has been imprisoned without charge or trial, or held under a control order (a form of house arrest) as a “terror suspect” for seven and a half years, on the basis of secret evidence, which has not been disclosed to him, sought permission in the High Court to leave the country, and to end his horrendous limbo in the UK, where he has suffered from severe mental health problems that have led to repeated attempts to commit suicide, and recently watched, impotently, as his wife gave up the long struggle and left the UK to live with relatives in Jordan, taking the children with her, even though both she and the children are British citizens.

I’m glad to report that Mr. Abu Rideh was successful in his application today, and that Amnesty International, which supported his case, has just announced that the Home Office has agreed to issue him with a travel document. As Amnesty explained, “Subject to the Home Office formally granting him the document, for which he has now applied, Mr. Abu Rideh will now be able to leave the UK and seek entry to another country.”

Amnesty’s press release continued: “Amnesty continues to call for Mahmoud Abu Rideh to be issued with a UN travel document, to which he should be entitled as a refugee. However in the interests of being able to leave the UK swiftly and attempt to be reunited with his family, Mr. Abu Rideh has agreed to apply for an inferior document that will allow him to leave the UK and enter another country.”

Counter-terrorism campaigner Sara Macneice added, “It is very welcome news that Mahmoud Abu Rideh will now be able to leave the UK and seek entry to a safe country, and will no longer be subjected to the repressive measures of his control order, which have driven him to utter desperation. I have spoken to Mr. Abu Rideh and this decision has given him real hope that he may now be reunited with his wife and children, and be able to rebuild his life.”

She also said, “Amnesty is supporting Mahmoud Abu Rideh’s application for a UN travel document, to which he should be entitled as a refugee. However he seems willing to apply for an inferior document in order to leave the UK as soon as possible. The Home Office should issue this document to him promptly, rather than subjecting him to yet more delays. This is a minor victory for one man, but the pernicious system of control orders, which has driven him and his family out of the UK, remains in place. Amnesty continues to call for an end to the control order regime and its replacement with measures which respect people’s basic human rights.”

To this I can only add that I wholeheartedly agree, and hope that, after a crucially important ruling by the Law Lords just three weeks ago — in which the Lords unanimously delivered a resounding repudiation of the government’s use of secret evidence to impose control orders on alleged terror suspects — the government finally decides to abandon policies which are so alien to the laws on which the UK prides itself. For nearly 800 years, since King John signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede, Britain has been the country that not only enshrined habeas corpus — the right not to be arbitrarily imprisoned, and to be deprived of one’s liberty only after a trial with a judge and jury — but that also exported it to the rest of the world.

Mahmoud Abu Rideh secured an important personal victory today, but everyone who believes that no one should be imprisoned or otherwise deprived of their liberty on the basis of secret evidence – and, essentially, on the whim of government ministers who have turned the clock back to 1214 — must continue to insist that the control order regime is brought to an end, and that the use of secret evidence has no place in a country that claims to uphold civilized values.

Control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh to be allowed to leave the UK « ظپط±ط³ط§ظ† ط¨ظ„ط§ ط®ظٹظˆظ„ – ط£ط³ط±ظ‰ ط§ظ„ظ…ط³ظ„ظ…ظٹظ†

[abuhannah]

hamdulilah...

[Aseerun]

Indeed! The power of du'aa it is...

We ask Allaah 'azza wa jal to re-unite him with his wife and children, ameen thumma ameen!

[Aseerun]

Please, please make du'aa for him:

Mahmoud AbuRideh Hospitalized After Self Harming

19th July

The caseworker for Mahmoud Abu Rideh received a telephone call at 11.06pm yesterday evening from a WPC based at Fulham Police Station informing him that Mahmoud Abu Rideh was in hospital after self-harming.

Our caseworker went to visit him at the hospital and discovered that Mahmoud Abu Rideh had repeatedly slashed his left arm with a razor. Mahmoud Abu Rideh said that he felt the room spinning and heard voices saying “The Home Office will never let you leave; they are just going to keep you driving around in circles.”

For those of you of those who might not be aware, Mahmoud was detained 2001 under anti terror legislation and to date he has not heard the secret evidence against him, he has been tried and detained without charge.

This current event is the most recent example of the damaging effects that control orders have had on him, (and on others), and the Home Office refusing to comply with a perfect valid and reasonable request.

ACTION REQUESTED

We are asking everyone to write to the Home Office to expedite his departure from the UK as authorized by the high court

We are requesting every brother to apply to be cleared to visit him via his solicitors.

We would also like to devise a Rota of brothers to spend nights with him

Birnberg Peirce & Co Solicitors
14 Inverness Street
London NW1 7HJ
Tel: 020 7911 0166

The Home Secretary Secretary of State for the Home Department
3rd. Floor Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF, UK
Fax: 0044 20 7035 4745
Email : public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Please contact

khadijah.aadam [at] muslimprisonersupport [dot] com for more information.

Source

[Iqra]

We ask Allaah 'azza wa jal to re-unite him with his wife and children, ameen thumma ameen!

Ameen. The brother is very distressed, May Allaah may have mercy upon. Please make dua for him and his family.

Here's his interview:

[Iqra]

[Mohd_Ali]

Inshallah may the brother be reunited with his family and may Allah grant him happiness

Ameen

[heart4allah]

OH NO I CAN SEE MY MUM THERE.... LOL... Masha'allah Allah bless Her Ameen...