Raed Salah wins appeal against deportation from UK: upper tribunal rules Theresa May was “misled”

The news broke last night that Palestinian activist Sheikh Raed Salah had won his appeal against deportation from the UK in the Upper Tier (Immigration) Tribunal in London.

My full story will be published on EI soon, including new revelations about the case, and its implications for the government’s Prevent “anti-terrorism” strategy. Meanwhile, here is the judge’s decision (a scan of the full document is forthcoming, but this extract is essentially the bottom line).

It is an important ruling. You’ll note in paragraph 90 that the judge Mark Ockelton even says of the ban (“exclusion order”) which Home Secretary Theresa May secretly imposed on Salah that there is now “no lawful basis” for it to be implemented. This is important, as the appeal was against the deportation, not the banning order.

Three of the groups that organised Raed Salah’s UK tour have also issued press releases: MEMO, Friends of Al-Aqsa and the PSC.

Salah has been stuck in the UK since June 2011, when he was arrested, despite entering the country legally for a well-publicised speaking tour. He was released on conditional bail in July and has been fighting in the courts to clear his name since then.

Salah UTT Decision

Update: the full fulling is available here.

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Good to see that British justice still grinds on and sometimes produces results independent of the executive! We have many reasons to criticise, sharply, the grave decline in our liberties under a post 9/11, US-camp following executive branch... but let's exert every effort to hold on to what made this country - once - great.

Asa Winstanley

Asa Winstanley's picture

Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist who lives in London. He is an associate editor of The Electronic Intifada and co-host of our podcast.

He is author of the bestselling book Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2023).