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CP: Could you please introduce yourself?

QQ: I have to be referred to as Detainee QQ, due to an anonymity order.

CP: What is your nationality, are you a UK citizen or resident?

QQ: I am a Libyan national, but am resident in the UK and have been for the last 12 years.

CP: What was your occupation prior to arrest?

QQ: I was trying to establish my own business as a private hire company and I was only in the first steps when I was arrested.

CP: Do you have any family in the UK?

QQ: I have got my wife and my kids – I have six kids. All of my family are British citizens.

CP: When were you first taken into custody?

QQ: It was 24^th May 2006.

CP: What were the circumstances of your arrest?

QQ: It was for deportation for being a threat to national security. I was arrested outside my home – I was in Hammersmith when they picked me up, they then went to raid my house but as I had the key with me I gave it to them explaining that there was no need to break the door in.

CP: When were you first told the reason for your detention?

QQ: When I was first arrested, they put me in Belmarsh and after that they took me to Long Lartin. During that period of time not one person came to do an interview with me; for at least two months, there was no interview, not a single question. All someone said was that I was a threat to the public, without stating the evidence against me, just that I am a threat. They said they want to deport me back to my country. They arrested me on 24^th May and the first interview took place on 21^st September with the police.

CP: What laws are being used to detain you?

QQ: I don’t know to be honest. To be honest, I was lost – I am supposedly a threat to the public, but I really have no idea why! To be honest, I am really confused by the way I have been treated. I was released for 10 days on bail starting on the 11^th of July 2006 because my wife was in hospital. They released me on that date at 11 o’clock at night. They simply released me from my cell and told me that I can go outside and look for my solicitor who is waiting for me – he was in fact sleeping in his car in the car park. The question you have to ask yourself; is that if I am such a threat to the public, how could they just release me? They took me out of the prison and closed the doors and I was free. We went from Long Lartin to London, to the hospital and we spent four hours getting there, as we got lost on the way back. The question you have to keep asking yourself; is that if I am such a threat to the public, how could they release me like this? I was let out of the prison by 12:30am with no tag on my ankle, no policeman to follow me, just simply by myself, with my solicitor. We waited at the hospital until 9am when my wife had given birth and then went back to my home where the Home Office and tagging company were waiting for me. This episode made me even more confused than before. I was lost, how can I be such a threat and released in that manner at the same time?

CP: What were you charged with?

QQ: They didn’t charge me with anything. They interviewed me on 21^st September 2006 about some money that they found, but even now they have given that money back to me.

CP: So what are the allegations then; surely they must have something?

QQ: Nothing! They asked me some silly questions, but they didn’t arrest me, they didn’t charge me, they didn’t even ask me about anything to do with terrorism, just the money. All that they have alluded to is that I am an influential person, but nothing substantial at all.

CP: Have you ever seen any of the evidence against you?

QQ: Nothing, they have nothing. They said that I know some people who are not good, they are involved with something against the government; but nothing.  They did not produce anything at all. They did not give any names or anything at all. I know most of the Libyan community here – but it is not like I can sit down with someone and ask them to fill out an application form before I sit down to have dinner with them, I don’t know what is in the mind of others!

CP: When were you placed on your bail order?

QQ: It was in 2007, after when we won the case. I had already been previously cleared for a 10 day release and the Home Office had already cleared my home and as soon as we won the case, after three days I was released.

CP: How has this ordeal affected your family; what was it like for them while you were in prison?

QQ: The first four weeks were the hardest days for my kids to be honest because they were confused with what was going on with their Dad. They didn’t see me that whole time and only visited me after a month and a half. It was very hard for them and they had been asking their Mum where I was. My wife did not tell them anything about the situation until the point that they were able to come and see me and I could explain what was going on. Even when they did come the for first three visits, as soon as they would see me they would start crying because they have never been used to being away from me. Especially for the small kids, the boy and the girl, they were angry and tried to help me – they would take out their anger against the staff and would say, “Why are you holding our Dad, why are you doing this to him?” They did this too many times whenever they would visit and I got too many complaints from the staff about this. I didn’t agree with what my children were doing but this is how they naturally react. Day by day they got used to it but to be honest it was very difficult for them due to the distance that they would have to travel. Nearing the end of my detention they would be too fed up to visit me because they would have to take the train to central London and after that someone would take them to the prison.

CP: How did this affect their personalities?

QQ: I wasn’t really around to see how it affected them, but my wife used to tell me that, especially in school, they had changed a lot. She spoke to the school’s head principal as he had complained that something had changed with the kids, saying that they were not the same as they used to be. He did not know anything about the situation so my wife explained to him what was taking place, what was going on. The principal then understood as he had been concerned that the children seemed lost and had no focus in class. Even in class, when it was art or writing time, they would make their artwork about me or make their stories about me. My daughter often sent letters to Tony Blair asking him why he had done this to me.   She would even make jokes to him saying, how would you like it if someone took your Dad and put him in prison? Praise be to God, we are okay and we accept what has happened to us from Allah.

CP: How did your family react after you were granted you bail order and you returned home?

QQ: It was a very happy day, to be honest, as even for me I did not believe that we were going to go out, but for 10 days before I was out and now I was out for a long time. For the first week, anyone who saw my children said that they had completely changed – I think that they went back to normal and this made me happy.

CP: How has it affected the personalities of your children having you under this bail order?

QQ: The main thing now is that they have a picture about the police and the system here. They believe that whenever they see a policeman, that policeman has come for me.  Especially yesterday – a lot of police cars passed by our road and one of my daughters came to me with a red face and said that there were some cars passing from in front of our house – she didn’t tell me why but I knew what she was thinking. The children have been affected by this and I think it will take them a long time to recover from this.

My son, a couple of days ago, he put his watch around his ankle to mimic an electronic tag and then placed his sock over it. He came inside to show me what he had done.  This made me extremely sad to be honest as I did not want my son to do these things. I know he knows that I have a tag, but it is not a good thing to see and it is also not the first time he has done it. It was a very painful experience for me – I talked to him and asked him not to do it again. He did it in order to try and show me support or something, but I don’t know why he did it.

My daughter, who is four years old, will come to me every day and ask, “Dad, Dad, did you call QQ back home?”, which means she is reminding me to call the tagging company to tell them I am in my home. This is a normal question for her. They all will remind me because they know if I do not call, then I will be in trouble.

CP: Do you face deportation?

QQ: Yes – they are trying to send me back to my country Libya. The problem with being sent back is that the Libyans said that if I return there, I will face the death penalty. They said this clearly. In Libya, there is no law, there is no justice, and they only do what Colonel Qaddafi tells them to do.

CP: How would you describe your current state physically and mentally?

QQ: I’m okay – I believe in God and they cannot destroy me. They have done what they have done and praise be to God, we believe in faith and we believe that anything that happened to us happened from Allah. We have to accept this and deal with it. As a Muslim, we know that anything comes from Allah, both bad and good – if something good happens we say praise be to God and if something bad happens we say praise be to God. We will never ask, ‘why has this thing happened to me?’ We will know God made this happen and we will not become weak or be destroyed from these things. I am sure I have not done anything wrong and if I had they could have charged me with a crime – they didn’t find anything at all. Even in the interview, they did not charge me with anything, in that interview they said Mr QQ we are not doing this interview because we want to charge you, but rather because we want to ask you about this money that you have. I’m in good health and I’m well; if something happened, it was only to my family, but they cannot destroy me, praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds.

CP: You are going through the process of SIAC, what does that mean?

QQ: When you come before the SIAC process, you are talking about a system where you are not allowed to know all the evidence, and your solicitor is not allowed to know all the evidence and you have to defend yourself blindly. Your case is like a block of concrete, you cannot get inside it to know what is going on. There is secret evidence, there is a special advocate who represents you, you don’t know him and he doesn’t know you. How can someone talk on behalf of you if you have never met that person? I think that the secret evidence exists simply because of their weakness.  I am always saying that they hide the weakness of their case against me behind secret evidence because if you have not got a strong case, then you can put it behind the secret evidence and win. When you come and talk to the judge you can say whatever you want.

CP: Do you have any message you would like give to our readers?

QQ: We are innocent. We came to this country in order to save ourselves from our own countries. We have been treated badly in our own countries. We came here with our families to find security. I am now not talking as a Muslim, only as a gentlemen. I don’t think a man could come to a country seeking refuge there and be given security and then turn around to do something against the people of that country – as a gentleman and as a Muslim, we cannot do such things. We came to this country with the agreement that we will be saved and protected and we follow the rules of the country – as a Muslim we must respect this agreement. We cannot breach the agreement because we are Muslims, we must respect it! The government does not understand this.

The main thing I want to say – I am not blaming the government to save their public. It is their right and it is my right. They can save their public but this is not the way to save them. This is why I do not agree. I have never said that they are not allowed to save their public. If I was in their position, maybe I would do the same, I am not sure, but at the same time they have the right to save the public, but not by accusing the wrong person. You have to use the things which do not affect your policy because you claim that you protect human rights but really you are destroying this thing, you are attacking your laws. It is like you build a house from chocolate and you start eating it – this is what they are doing. In the end, I believe we were a part of a politicians fight between too many governments and just we are a part of it. It cannot be that in one day all the Libyan detainees became a threat to the public. All the Libyans have been living in this country for more than thirteen years, how come one day they come and say that we are a threat for the public – we believe there is something behind this as we cannot believe that the government is saying that Libya was asking for us. Still I need to ask the question, that if I am such a threat, why release me under bail conditions without any security?