23/07/2008
I am ex-detainee BB. I am 43 year old, Algerian national, a qualified electronic engineer, married to an Algerian woman and I have three very young children. I have been living and working in the UK since 1995. I applied for asylum and explained to the UK authorities the reason for that. In 2003, I was arrested and charged with possession of articles for use in terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000. The charges were eventually dropped and I was instead convicted for possession of a false passport, but not until I spent 10 months in the high security prison of Belmarsh wondering what I had done to be there.
Nevertheless I was set free again, only to be re-arrested one year later. This time under the Immigration Act 1971. The Home Office wanted to deport me to Algeria. Although I accept the state has the right not to allow people to remain in the country for different reasons, (it seems in my case I am a threat to national security). I hold a different view when it comes to forcing them to be deported them to the country that they are fleeing from and not to allowing them to go somewhere else or to seek asylum in a different country.
The only way I could resist deportation and challenge the national security case against me was through SIAC, the special Court whose secret procedures have been criticised and declared as criminal by human rights organisations.
During my long and awful detention in Long Lartin high security prison (it is called detention but in reality it is an open ended sentence by stealth), I discovered from the little information that was disclosed to myself and my lawyer that the UK government had shockingly disclosed inaccurate information to the Algerian government. In 2004 an official in the UK government, yet to be identified, had reported me to Interpol in Algiers as belonging to an armed terrorist group. The Foreign Office also gave inaccurate information to the Algerians, namely that I was found with that the I was found in possession of information on bomb-making and instructions for creating chemical explosives. Both of those allegations are untrue and defamatory, otherwise I would have been prosecuted in the UK a long time before this rotten business of deportation.
The judge, Mr Mitting, in his judgment dismissing my case said that Mr Layden was a realist and talked about his experience and expertise. I say that I too am a realist because I imagine myself in the DRS (Algerian security service) bureau, in some unknown location in Algiers, trying to explain to them that the UK government has made a mistake and that I am not a threat to national security or part of an armed terrorist group. Who do you think they are going to believe? The UK government or me?!
Finally, I have grave concerns about the true intentions of the Home Office and UK government with all those allegations. It does not look like they want just to deport me, but they want Algeria to deal with me in a manner that would not be illegal in the UK. The UK government wants to do the Algerians dirty work for them, such as torture, unlawful detention, and being kept in cruel and inhumane prison conditions.
Today I am not anymore in Long Lartin prison, but I am in another kind of prison, which is virtual house arrest with a strict 20 hour daily curfew. The nightmare is not finished for me, nor is it for my poor family, which is suffering beyond endurance in the name of dirty politics.
BB lost his appeal to SIAC and his deportation appeal has now reached the House of Lords. After the House of Lords granted BB permission to appeal in March 2008, he applied to SIAC for bail a fourth time and was granted bail, but only on the most draconian of bail conditions. SIAC agreed to release BB to live with his wife and three children but subject to a 20 hour daily curfew. When permitted outside the house he must remain within a boundary of about 3 miles in radius. Neither his family nor himself are permitted visitors without Home Office permission, nor are they allowed a computer or mobile phone in the house. He lives in cramped conditions with his family in accommodation provided by the Home Office.
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