In a country which deports over a thousand people a week and is currently appealing to the European Court of Human Rights to allow it to deport individuals to countries where they face a substantial risk of torture, the High Court in London heard an unusual judicial review case on 3 July.

Mahmoud Abu Rideh, a 37 year old stateless Palestinian national, has lived in the UK for 14 years and was granted refugee status in 1998. He had previously been a prisoner in an Israeli jail where he was tortured. In 2001, following the introduction of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, he was arrested and held without charge or trial at HMP Belmarsh and later at Broadmoor Hospital for three years for posing a risk to “national security”. That risk was and remains unspecified. When this mode of arbitrary detention was deemed unlawful and in breach of the UK’s human rights obligations, Mr. Abu Rideh was briefly released but was then slapped with a control order which he has been subject to for the past four years.

Under this control order, he is held under a 12 hour curfew in which he cannot leave his home, he cannot make appointments to meet anyone and visitors to his home must be security vetted by the Home Office. Understandably, he has few visitors. The stress of this regime has been unbearable for Mr. Abu Rideh and his family. He has tried to commit suicide three times, most recently in May 2008 and last month threatened to kill himself if he was not allowed to leave the UK. Mr. Abu Rideh’s wife and six children who have been equally punished by this arbitrary system left the UK in May this year to live with her family in Jordan. The stress has been enormous all round. At the hearing, his counsel described him as being at a “high level of despair”.

Mr. Abu Rideh has sought to leave the UK since last year to escape the difficult terms of the control order, a regime described by one law lord as a “prison with three walls” but has been prevented from doing so as he has no internationally valid travel document; a UN document is usually issued to refugees under the Refugee Convention. Mr. Abu Rideh’s travel documents expired earlier this year and the Home Office would not allow him to reapply, offering him only a single exit travel document, which no country would accept. This is although he has made it quite clear that he has no intention to return to the UK.

Lawyers acting for Mr. Abu Rideh brought a judicial review to ask why the Home Secretary has refused to issue him with documents that would enable him to leave the country and travel to a third country that would accept him. He cannot be returned to Jordan or the Palestinian Territories due to further risk of torture. At the hearing, they argued that this is both discriminatory and irrational. The Home Office on the other hand argued that it was afraid that Mr. Abu Rideh may later seek to return to the UK after living abroad and possibly consorting with individuals who pose a risk to the security of this country. The matter was further complicated by the judge and the fact that there is little legal precedent as to how to deal with such a matter in these particular circumstances.

In the end, it was decided that Mr. Abu Rideh could apply for a 5 year travel certificate, which is not the same as a UN travel document for refugees, which as a stateless person he is entitled to. An application has already been made and a response should be received before the end of the month. If unsuccessful, Mr. Abu Rideh will reapply for a UN travel document, which could be a lengthy process. All Mr. Abu Rideh would really like is to leave the UK and the nightmare of the past almost eight years behind him and to rejoin his family.

Supporters of Mr. Abu Rideh, in particular from the Muslim Prisoner Support Group and Peace and Justice in East London, held a demonstration in support outside the High Court before the hearing. Over fifteen people attended and several attended the hearing too. Mr. Abu Rideh’s case is also backed by Amnesty International.


More on this story:
 http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18298
 http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/07/03/control-order-detainee-mahmoud-abu-rideh-to-be-allowed-to-leave-the-uk/
 http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/07/03/would-you-be-able-to-cope-letters-by-the-children-of-control-order-detainee-mahmoud-abu-rideh/
 http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/07/03/seven-years-of-madness-the-harrowing-tale-of-mahmoud-abu-rideh-and-britains-anti-terror-laws/
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/terror-suspect-wins-battle-to-leave-britain-1731260.html