Yvette Cooper to consider giving mystery Middle East 'terror chief' British citizenship
EXCLUSIVE: The man, whose identity is protected by a court order, came to the UK using a special passport and business visa from his home country in late 2012. He was a founding member of a prominent national opposition party that became a proscribed terror group.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has been forced to reconsider an application for British Citizenship by a mystery former founding member of a society branded a "terrorist" group in his native country.
The man, whose identity is protected by a court order, came to the UK using a special passport and business visa from his home country in late 2012.
He was a founding member of a prominent national opposition party that became a proscribed terror group.
The organisation was seen as key to promoting protests during the Arab Spring uprisings in the country in 2011.
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The applicant, and several other MPs, resigned from his country's Parliament the same year and were then accused by the government of inciting hatred and violence.
The society was later banned as a proscribed group upon allegations of inciting violence and terrorism.
The man, named only as FGF during the Special Immigration Appeal Commission (SIAC) hearing, learned that his citizenship of his home country was revoked while he was in the UK, leaving him stateless.
The SIAC judgement said: "The applicant applied for asylum in the UK. His application was granted about a year later. In early 2019 he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a refugee."
In early 2020, he applied for naturalisation as a British citizen, but it was refused by the Home Office in February 2022 on grounds that he did not meet a "good character" requirement.
He applied for a review and in late 2022 the Home Office changed its stance to say that the case was "marginal" but there was not enough evidence to say he did not meet the good character test.
However, then Home Secretary Suella Braverman had the final say.
She concluded that he was not of "good character" and rejected the application. The Home Secretary does not have to set out their reasons for this, the SIAC judgement said.
During the appeal it emerged that some of the information about the man, including that he had been convicted in his home country of instigating hatred and organising illegal meetings, was incorrect.
It was actually a relative of his that was convicted of those charges, the judgement said.
Because Ms Braverman did not set out her reasons for concluding he was not of good character, the judges felt it could have been based on the wrong information.
The judges wrote: "We therefore accept that the decision is flawed for lack of adequate reasons, that it should be quashed, and that the Secretary of State should consider the matter afresh."
This means new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will now have to reach a decision on the application.
