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Sheikh Raed Salah sues over illegal detention in Britain

Palestinian activist Sheikh Raed Salah, who is accused of inciting anti – Semitic violence, was able to walk through immigration earlier this year despite being banned by Theresa May days before he arrived.

When the blunder was discovered he was detained pending deportation but was freed on bail by judges three weeks later while he appeals the removal order.

And he is now seeking thousands of pounds in damages for “false imprisonment” after his lawyers yesterday said he had always planned to leave the country and detention was therefore unnecessary.

His lawyer is also claiming his human rights were breached because reasons for his detention were not explained in his own language.

Salah, 52, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has allegedly propagated a conspiracy theory that Jewish people were involved in the Sept 11 attacks.

Mrs May banned him entering the UK days ahead of a planned visit in June but the information was sent to the wrong terminal at Heathrow and he arrived unopposed.

He went on to deliver a speech in Leicester before he was arrested three days in to his visit and detained.

The Home Secretary served a deportation notice on the father of eight on the grounds that his presence in the UK was “not conducive to the public good”.

But Salah won bail three weeks later and is now seeking damages unlawful detention, as well as appealing against the decision to deport in separate proceedings before an immigration tribunal later this month.

His barrister, Raza Husain (corr) QC, told the High Court yesterday that he always planned to return home and had bought a return ticket.

‘If the individual is going to comply, why should it matter that removal is imminent?’ he said.

‘Detention is supposed to be the very last resort.

‘It is a matter of regret that the claimant has been subject to repeated harassment.’ Read the rest of this entry »