24
A. AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
49. SIAC reviewed the case on 2 July 2004 and on 28 February 2005
and, on each occasion, decided that there were still grounds for maintaining
the certificate.
7. The seventh applicant
50. The seventh applicant was born in Algeria in 1971 and apparently
entered the United Kingdom using false French identity papers in or before
1994. On 7 December 2001 he was convicted of a number of driving
offences and sentenced to four months’ imprisonment. He was certified by
the Secretary of State on 5 February 2002 and taken into detention pursuant
to the certificate as soon as his prison sentence ended on 9 February 2002.
51. In its judgment of 29 October 2003, SIAC noted that the allegations
against the seventh applicant were that he had been a member of GSPC
since 1997 or 1998, and before that a member of GIA; that his contacts with
leading GSPC members in the United Kingdom showed that he was a
trusted member of the organisation; and that he had been involved with Abu
Doha and the sixth applicant in purchasing telecommunications equipment
for use by extremists in Chechnya and Algeria. It further noted that:
“[The seventh applicant] did not give evidence before [SIAC] and, indeed, chose not
to attend the hearing of his appeal. His statement, which we have of course read, is in
the most general terms, and, perhaps not surprisingly, [his counsel’s] submissions,
both oral and written, were similarly general. [The seventh applicant’s] approach to
the present proceedings of themselves and the fact that he did not give oral evidence
or make any detailed written statement are not matters to be put in the scale against
him. We well understand the difficulty that Appellants have in circumstances where
the allegations against them are only summarised and where much of the evidence on
which those allegations are based cannot, for reasons of national security, be
communicated to the Appellants themselves. However, [the seventh applicant] is in
the best position to know what his activities and motives have been in the relevant
period. Nothing prevents him from giving a full description and account of those
activities if he wishes to do so. The fact that he has chosen to provide no detailed
account of his activities means that he has provided no material to counter the
evidence and arguments of others.”
SIAC concluded that the open and closed material supported the
allegations against the seventh applicant and it dismissed his appeal.
52. In its review judgments of 2 July and 15 December 2004, SIAC
decided that the certificate should be maintained.
8. The eighth applicant
53. The eighth applicant is a Jordanian national, born in Bethlehem in
1960. He arrived in the United Kingdom on 16 September 1993 and claimed
asylum. He was recognised as a refugee and granted leave to remain until
30 June 1998. On 8 May 1998 he applied for indefinite leave to remain but
the application had not been determined at the time of the coming into force
of the 2001 Act.