Yesterday, 8 July 2011, there was a hearing in London at 2pm. Shaykh Raed Salah was denied bail by the courts and is to remain in a high security prison with dangerous criminals until his appeal against deportation is heard.
The judge stated that the prosecution’s submissions that Shaykh Raed would abscond if granted bail were not convincing, and neither did they find the evidence against him persuasive. They did not allow the bail on the grounds that the Home Secretary must have compelling evidence for taking the steps that she did, and the court was not prepared to contravene this.
Ismail Patel, chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa was present at the hearing, and said: “We are greatly disappointed by the decision reached by the court today. Shaykh Raed poses no threat to the British public and is being made a scapegoat by the Home Office to cover its blunders over this whole incident. The Home Secretary was unduly swayed by the opinions of those with an anti-Palestine agenda when she excluded Shaykh Raed from Britain. Although it has long since become apparent that Shaykh Raed is not a threat in either Britain or his home country of Israel, the Home Office will not admit its failing and as a result, he is being made to suffer the loss of his freedom and liberty.
An even graver concern stems from the fact the government and security services have failed to follow protocol in their treatment of Shaykh Salah by denying him access to his lawyers for four days while in prison. This breach of his basic legal rights reflects how the British government is acting outside of the law in their detention and treatment of Shaykh Raed Salah and it is absolutely unacceptable.”
The actions of the British government are only serving to stifle the legitimate voices of the Palestinian people struggling for freedom from occupation.
